Fig. 71.—The Sir John Franklin. American Transatlantic sailing-packet. 1840.
Fig. 72.—The Ocean Herald. American clipper. 1855.
The speed attained by some of these vessels was most remarkable. In 1851 the Nightingale, built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in a race from Shanghai to Deal, on one occasion ran 336 knots in twenty-four hours. In the same year the Flying Cloud, one of Donald McKay's American clippers, ran 427 knots in twenty-four hours in a voyage from New York to San Francisco. This performance was eclipsed by that of another vessel belonging to the same owner, the Sovereign of the Seas, which on one occasion averaged over eighteen miles an hour for twenty-four consecutive hours. This vessel had a length of keel of 245 ft., 44 ft. 6 in. beam, and 25 ft. 6 in. depth of hold. She was of 2,421 tons register.
English shipowners were very slow to adopt these improvements, and it was not till the year 1850, after the abolition of the navigation laws, that our countrymen really bestirred themselves to produce sailing-ships which should rival and even surpass those of the Americans. The legislation in question so affected the prospects of British shipping, that nothing but the closest attention to the qualities of vessels and to economy in their navigation could save our carrying trade from the effects of American competition. Mr. Richard Green, of the Blackwall Line, was the first English shipbuilder to take up the American challenge. In the year 1850 he laid down the clipper ship the Challenger. About the same time, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co. gave an order to an Aberdeen firm of shipbuilders, Messrs. Hall and Co., to build two sharp ships on the American model, but of stronger construction. These vessels were named the Stornoway and Chrysolite, and were the first of the celebrated class of Aberdeen clippers. They were, however, only about half the dimensions of the larger American ships, and were, naturally, no match for them in sailing powers. The Cairngorm, built by the same firm, was the first vessel which equalled the Americans in speed, and, being of a stronger build, delivered her cargo in better condition, and consequently was preferred. In 1856 the Lord of the Isles, built by Messrs. Scott, of Greenock, beat two of the fastest American clippers in a race to this country from China, and from that time forward British merchant vessels gradually regained their ascendency in a trade which our transatlantic competitors had almost made their own.