The Sweepstakes made the fastest passage to San Francisco in 1856—94 days from New York—followed by the Antelope, 97 days; Phantom, 101 days; and David Brown, 103 days; the Ringleader made the passage from Boston in 100 days. The abstract log of the Sweepstakes is as follows:
| From Sandy Hook to the equator | 18 | days. |
| From the equator to 50° S. | 23 | “ |
| From 50° in the Atlantic to 50° in the Pacific | 15 | “ |
| From 50° S. to the equator | 17 | “ |
| From the equator to San Francisco | 21 | “ |
| Total | 94 | “ |
The year 1857 was one of financial depression throughout the United States, which was severely felt by the shipping interests of the country and continued until the Civil War. The rates of freight from New York to San Francisco, which during the years immediately following the discovery of gold in California were $60 a ton, gradually declined, and in 1857 had fallen to $10 per ton. Ships that had formerly loaded cargoes for San Francisco night and day and were hurried to sea as quickly as possible, now lay at their loading berths for weeks, leisurely taking on board such cargo as their agents could engage. During this period vessels lay idle at the wharves of Atlantic ports for weeks and even months, in charge of ship-keepers, with sails unbent, waiting for employment.
The former activity in the ship-building yards had also subsided. During the four years prior to the Civil War, Donald McKay built only one ship,
The “Sweepstakes�
the Alhambra (1857), and William H. Webb built only one ship for the California trade, the Black Hawk, beside the Resolute, and the barque Trieste (1857), and the barque Harvest Queen (1858). The same depression was felt in all the yards along the Atlantic coast. British ship-builders had made such rapid progress in the construction and speed of their vessels that it was now difficult for American ships to obtain charters from China to England. From 1857 to 1861, they were to be found lying idle for months at a time in Manila Bay, Hong-kong harbor, Foo-chow, Shanghai, and Calcutta, seeking employment.
The depression in the oversea carrying trade was felt quite as much by the ship-owners of Great Britain as by those of the United States, and while of short duration, was as serious there as in the United States. It was at this period, however, that Great Britain began to feel the benefit of Free Trade in her ship building industry, and entered upon her conquest of the world’s oversea carrying trade. In this her ship-builders were greatly assisted by the introduction of iron as a material for construction. In 1855 the Committee of Lloyd’s Register had framed rules for the classification of iron ships, as their number had so increased, and the demand of ship-owners for their official recognition had become so general, that they could no longer be ignored. The screw propeller was also beginning to supersede side-wheels as a means of propulsion, and some of the ablest men in Great Britain were engaged upon the development and improvement of the marine engine and boiler.
The steam tonnage of the British Empire—mostly engaged in the oversea carrying trade—had increased from 204,654 tons in 1851 to 417,717 tons in 1856, whereas the steam tonnage of the United States engaged in the oversea carrying trade had increased from 62,390 tons in 1851 to 115,045 tons in 1855, but had decreased to 89,715 tons in 1856. It should be noted that while a large proportion of the steam tonnage of Great Britain consisted of iron vessels, many of them being screw steamers, the steam vessels of the United States were very nearly, if not all, still constructed of wood and propelled by side-wheels.
The first symptoms of the decadence of the American merchant marine were the falling-off in the sales of American tonnage to foreign countries—the reduction being from 65,000 tons in 1855 to 42,000 tons in 1856, declining to 26,000 tons in 1858 and to 17,000 tons in 1860, a falling-off of 75% in five years—then in the total tonnage of vessels built in the United States, which fell from 583,450 tons in 1855 to 469,393 tons in 1856, and to 378,804 tons in 1857.