"British and American clipper ships, fast-moving transport vessels, dominated the high seas during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The three masted, square-rigged clipper ship gained its name for "clipping" along at record speeds, made possible with a sleek hull that sliced through the water, to which the chevron shape in the prints alludes. All of the ships named in the V Series were built in Great Britain." - Richard Axsom, Frank Stella Prints, p. 76