"Smashing her way through enormous cross seas and howling winds the Neptune's Car began to run her easting down. She passed a battered barque bearing Hamburg markings vainly attempting to make westing against a thundering south-westerly gale." Those with an interest in American maritime history would know of the story of Mary Patten and the clipper ship Neptune's Car. However few would be aware of the cursed nature of the ship. The Patten's fateful voyage was just one in the career of a clipper whose travels spanned the globe. Built at the yard of Page & Allen in Gosport, Virginia in the spring of 1853, the Neptune's Car quickly established her reputation for speed. However murder, mutiny, mayhem, plague, disaster, war, death and financial ruin haunted any who know her. The fickle hand of fate was always at the helm and like the oceans upon which the clipper sailed, she spared none who showed weakness Volume One of the Virginia Clippers.