Her poop was 42 feet long, and her foc’s’le-head 31 feet. She came out in 1863 with Cunningham’s patent single topsails, but owing to her dismasting was one of the earliest ships to send aloft double topsail yards.
The following are the original spar measurements of her mainmast:—
| Mainmast—deck to truck | 130.6 | feet. |
| Lower mast—deck to cap | 64 | „ |
| Doubling | 13.6 | „ |
| Topmast | 46 | „ |
| Doubling | 8 | „ |
| Topgallant mast | 25 | „ |
| Royal mast | 17 | „ |
| Mainyard | 75 | „ |
| Topsail yard | 61 | „ |
| Topgallant yard | 46 | „ |
| Royal yard | 34 | „ |
Wild Deer was taken from the stocks by Captain George Cobb, a well-known racing skipper in the China tea trade who had previously commanded the Robin Hood. Her complement consisted of 3 mates, 3 apprentices, carpenter, sailmaker and bosun, 16 A.B.’s and 3 ordinary seamen, it being intended to ship 4 more A.B.’s in China in the event of her getting into the race home with the cracks.
On her maiden passage she lost her foremast in the North Atlantic, owing to the want of angle irons, as Titania did a few years later, and this lost Wild Deer her chance of loading the first teas of the season. She had to put into Lisbon to refit, and came out of the Tagus with a very mixed sail plan; on the foremast she had an old-fashioned single topsail with three rows of reef points, on the main double topsails and on the mizen her original Cunningham’s patent single topsail.
Her first two tea passages from Shanghai were good average runs, but nothing remarkable, her best work being 72 days from Anjer in 1865.
In 1866 she left London on 16th April and arrived at Shanghai on 29th July, 104 days out. Again she did not succeed in getting away with the first ships, but leaving Shanghai on 10th September she made Portland on Christmas Day. A fine S.S.W. breeze was blowing and Wild Deer was romping along under all plain sail and starboard fore topmast stunsail, when the American schooner yacht, Henrietta, the winner of the first ocean yacht race, hauled out from the land and, closing on the clipper, hoisted her colours and asked her name. The late Gordon Bennett, her owner, was on board the yacht, and evidently wished to try her paces against the tea ship, as the Henrietta held on in company with Wild Deer for an hour or two, then bore away for the Needles.
On this passage whilst crossing the Indian Ocean in the S.E. trades, Wild Deer made three consecutive 24-hour runs of 312, 312 and 327 miles.