After Life and End of the Liverpool Emigrant Clippers.
A favourite round in the latter days of the Liverpool soft-wood clippers was from Melbourne across to Auckland and from there over to the Chincas to load guano. From this the survivors gradually descended to the Quebec timber trade. By the early seventies I find Marco Polo, Red Jacket, Ben Nevis, and other well-known ships already staggering to and fro across the Atlantic between the Mersey and the St. Lawrence, whilst in June, 1874, the Flying Cloud got ashore on the New Brunswick coast, when making for St. John’s, and was so strained that she was compelled to discharge her cargo and go on the slip for repairs. Here misfortune again overcame the grand old ship, for she took fire and was so gutted that she was sold for breaking up.
It is curious how many of the old American-built soft-wood ships were destroyed by fire, their number including the James Baines, Lightning, Empress of the Seas No. 1, Blue Jacket No. 1, Ocean Chief, Fiery Star, and second Sovereign of the Seas.