at home.

It is to the China trade therefore that we must look for the names of many of the most famous sailing ships the world has ever seen. The tea clippers, particularly between the years 1860 and 1870, just before they were supplanted by steam, were a fleet of which this maritime nation justly had reason to be proud. Seldom rising to a burthen of above one thousand tons, they were the most beautiful and symmetrical models that ever floated; keen as a knife below the water-line, yet swelling gracefully into proportions good for stability; rigged to a loftiness that would stunt by comparison the four-masted leviathans of the present day, and offering such a picture as they burst through the surges under the soaring heights of their flying kites as one might now scour the oceans in vain search for. Some few of them still survive, but their former glory is eclipsed; they are shorn of their stately racing rig; and old sailors who go about much from port to port will frequently be rendered pensive by the sight of one of the most celebrated beauties of their day reduced in the ripeness of her years to the grimy state of a coal hulk, or the still more ignominious condition of a floating laundry.

The first British ship to beat the record between Foochoo-foo and the

Thames was the Lord of the Isles, an Aberdeen clipper, commanded by Captain Maxton. She took part in

often came in with tons upon tons of tea ruined by salt water. The Lord of the Isles was closely followed by other vessels of a like class, such as the Falcon, Spray of the Ocean, and Crest of the Wave. A very characteristic anecdote of American 'cuteness is told in connection with one of the homeward runs of this latter ship. She sailed from Shanghai for the Thames in company with the Baltimore clipper Sea Serpent. A premium of thirty shillings a ton, over and above the amount of the freight, had been offered to the vessel which should make the first delivery. This was a consideration to keep both skippers hard driving. So close was the race that the two vessels actually hove-to off the Isle of Wight for pilots within an hour of each other. It looked to the American captain very much as though the Crest of the Wave would arrive in the docks first. He therefore took time by the forelock. Going ashore in the same boat which put his pilot on board, he at

the celebrated race home of 1856, and although two of the most notorious American ships of the period were running against her, both of nearly double her tonnage, she arrived in the Thames several days before either of them, and discharged her cargo in an almost spotless condition. This was reckoned a great feat at the time, for the American ships, which were always more lightly built than our own, and of soft wood for the most part, frequently leaked owing to the working of their frames caused by heavy "cracking on," and

once took rail to London, and entered his ship's name at the Custom House as "arrived," before she had actually rounded the North Foreland. There was great equality, as a rule, in the speed of most of these clipper ships under similar conditions of weather. The famous race of 1866 affords a curious illustration of the truth of this. Five noted ships started from Foo-choo-foo upon the contest, which was watched with a great deal of interest in this country. Three of them sailed almost simultaneously: they were the Ariel, Taeping, and Serica. At night

fall they lost sight of one another, nor did they meet again during the whole course of the voyage until off the Land's End, when the Taeping and the Ariel fell in with each other, and whilst they were cracking on for the race up Channel, the Serica hove into view, the three of them arriving in the docks upon the same tide.

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supposed when it is stated that, in racing trim and under all sail, the Sir Lancelot spread upwards of 46,000 square feet of canvas; perhaps the greatest area which was ever shown by any full-rigged ship. To her belongs the honour of having accomplished the swiftest passage on record of any sailing vessel between China and England. This was in 1869, during the fourth season of her running, and a year that seemed prolific in rapid ocean voyages. According to the entries made in her logbook she left Foochoo-foo on the 17th of July, on the 7th of August made Anjer Light, on the 28th of the same month sighted the African coast somewhere to the eastwards of the Buffalo River, on the 11th of September made her number off St. Helena, on the 10th

In 1865 there was launched from the yards of Messrs. Steele of Greenock a little vessel of 886 tons register, which proved to be the fastest ship that down to this time had ever sailed the seas. She was named the Sir Lancelot, and so remarkable were her achievements that a description of some little fulness may prove interesting. Her length was a trifle above 197 feet, her breadth thirty-three feet seven inches, and the depth of her hold twentyseven feet. She was what is called a composite-built ship: that is to say her frame-work was of iron and her sheathing of wood. The one idea in the construction of this vessel was speed: everything likely to result in the attainment of this was aimed at. Before the copper was put on to her bottom, her planks from the water-line downwards were planed off, and the hard teak rendered as smooth as a ball-room floor. In order to give the vessel greater stability, and enable her to carry her immensely long masts, nearly one hundred tons of iron pigs or "kentledge" was fitted into the open spaces along the keelson between her frames.

t she needed some such deadweight is to keep her steady may well be

of October passed the Lizard, and on the 14th was berthed in the West India Docks; making a passage of about 14,000 miles in eighty-nine days against the prevailing monsoon. Her most remarkable run was made whilst crossing the Indian Ocean, when on one occasion she did by observation 354 statute miles in twenty-four hours. And this upon a westerly course, in which she was meeting time, and must have gained during that one day's work, on the parallel she was then traversing, at least twenty minutes, which would represent the equivalent of another five miles to add to the apparent distance covered. For a consecutive week, with fresh beam winds, she kept up an average daily run of 300 miles. The most remarkable point about this vessel's extraordinary sailing qualities, according to Captain Richard Robinson who commanded her, was the capacity of maintaining her high speed in the very lightest breeze, and the power she had of fore-reaching against an almost dead head wind.

The second fastest passage then on record between China and Great Britain was made during this same season by the

Aberdeen clipper Thermopyla. She was ninety-one days in covering the distance between Foo-choo-foo and the river Thames. But although the Sir Lancelot enjoys the undisputed reputation of having made the quickest voyage of any vessel engaged in the tea trade, it is not too much to claim for the Thermopyla the honour of being the swiftest sailing ship afloat. That is to say she can show the greatest twenty-four hours' run that has ever been made by any craft dependent upon the wind as a motive power; which perhaps is the only fair test, seeing that in long ocean passages one ship may meet with nothing but baffling weather, whilst another will carry fair breezes over the whole of the same track. The Thermopyla was built in 1868 by Walter Hood of Aberdeen from designs by Mr. Bernard Waymouth, the late secretary to Lloyd's Register. She is of 948 tons burthen; her dimensions are 210 feet long, thirty

twenty one deep. Her first voyage was from London to Melbourne. Starting in November 1868, she made the fastest journey between those places that had ever been accomplished sixty days from berth to berth. This was looked upon at the time as a quite exceptional achievement, due largely to accident, and it was never supposed that the ship could

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all. But it was whilst "running down her easting" between the Cape and Australia that she displayed her wonderful capabilities. On January 3rd, 1870, with the wind strong abeam she ran by the log, confirmed afterwards by observations, 330 knots, or 380 statute miles! Allowing even a discount of ten miles off this total for time gained by her in Great Circle sailing, she would still be able to show an average of fifteen and a half miles an hour, which is certainly a feat that no sailing ship, either before or since, has ever exceeded. Nor is this all, for on

ten days at least of the sixty which she occupied on her passage, the average run amounted to upwards of 350 miles in the twenty-four hours, and in one week, between December 30th and January 5th, she covered a distance of above 2,000 land miles. Sailing of this sort was superior to anything which at that time had been accomplished by steam upon long ocean voyages.

maintain the reputation she had won upon this voyage. But the next trip she made confirmed her remarkable qualities, for she accomplished the same passage within a few hours of the exact time her maiden run had occupied. The log of her first trip is preserved in Lindsay's History of Shipping, and is a real curiosity as a record of rapid sailing. She left Gravesend on the 5th of November, and down to the date of crossing the Line, which she did on the 28th, her average daily runs amounted to 178 miles. This was chiefly with moderate winds, for it does not appear that she fell in with the North-east Trades at

Another very swift sailing ship, and a craft which has come much into rivalry with the Thermopyla, is the Cutty Sark.

But, although one would not deny to this clipper the possession of extraordinary qualities of speed, she cannot be fairly allowed the palm of championship over the former vessel. As one of the tea racing ships she proved unfortunate during the few seasons that she was running. On one occasion she left Foo-choo-foo in company with the famous Aberdeen clipper, and the two vessels sailed in consort down the whole length of the China Sea. When off Anjer, in the Strait of Sunda, the Thermopyla was only leading by about four

hours. Off the Cape, however, the Cutty Sark lost her rudder, and with it all chance of making what had thus far promised to be a very rapid passage. In the Australian trade she did better, and bears the fine record of having, for eight successive voyages, made the trip between London and Sydney in an average of seventy-five

to Vingorla, at which place she took up the Seaforth Highlanders and brought them home in a little less than eighty days. This, of course, was in the good old time of the Cape passage, when four months was reckoned no uncommon period for the voyage to occupy.

John

The Transatlantic clippers have long since ceased to exist, yet no finer set of ships were afloat in their day. Memorable amongst these was the Liverpool Black Star Liner Bright. Our English vessels had still the Baltimore clippers to compete with on this passage long after they had ceased to race us in the China trade. The most notable of the records between the United States and Liverpool was made so

days. Her quickest passage was accomplished in 1885, when she made her number off the Lizard signal station sixty-seven days after leaving the anchorage in Neutral Bay.

The Parsee builders of Bombay had the art of graceful shipbuilding in perfection. As a rule the vessels which they turned out of their yards were of the old frigate school, but in the later days of their existence they launched some beautiful clippers. We give an illustration of one of the smartest of these vessels, built as early as 1857 for a steam war-ship, from the designs of the eminent naval architect, Oliver Lang. As the H.E.I.C. ship Punjaub she did much good service in the Bombay Marine, and when she was sold on the transfer of the government of India to the Imperial Crown, she was converted into a sailing vessel, and re-christened the Tweed. A more costly ship of her class was perhaps never put upon the water. Like most Hindoo-built craft, she was constructed entirely of Malabar teak. Under the flag of the British Merchant Service she made some remarkable passages. Her first voyage was from London to Bombay, with the Persian Gulf telegraph cable on board, which she was afterwards employed in laying, and she covered the distance in seventy-seven days. She then proceeded

long ago as 1851 by the Yankee clipper Typhoon; this famous vessel crossed in thirteen days from Portsmouth N.H. to the Mersey. The Americans, however, were not always quite candid in stating the feats of their ships. One of their practices was to invariably reckon sixty miles to a degree of longitude whilst doing their easting, so that a day's run of, say, 240 miles, upon the parallel of 45° N., would by this means give the distance covered as exactly one hundred miles in excess of what it should be. The skippers of many of the celebrated Black Ball clippers were not above adopting this method of calculation, but whilst it gave them the appearance of making wonderful twenty-four hours' runs, it did not in fact quicken their passages.

There are no finer clipper ships afloat at the present day than those running in the wool trade between Australia and this country. Here, as in the China traffic where they first won their fame, the Aberdeen clippers still maintain their reputation as the swiftest sailing vessels on this passage. The waters of Sydney Bay or Melbourne Harbour have never indeed reflected forms of more perfect grace and symmetry than those of the green hulled craft, with their arching cutwaters, moulded elliptical sterns, and

white painted masts, yards, and bowsprits, which ply under the familiar house-flag of the original "White Star" Line. We give illustrations of two of the most celebrated of these vessels: the Salamis passing the North Foreland outward bound, and the Patriarch as she lay in Sydney just before starting upon the homeward journey of her first voyage in 1869, when she accomplished the quickest passage that has ever been made between that port and London, namely sixty-eight days from the Heads to the West India Docks. It is curious to note how many of the famous clippers have made their greatest runs upon their maiden passages. The Patriarch is one of the largest of the Aberdeen clippers; her burthen is 1,339 tons net, and she was built in 1869 by Walter Hood and Co. No doubt every ship is possessed of some peculiarity or distinguishing point of her own; that of the Patriarch consists in having the longest poop-deck of any vessel afloat. Perhaps the least enviable kind of reputation for a ship to have gained is the one claimed for the Hawkesbury : that she is the very wettest craft in a seaway of any clipper hailing from the port of London. "The finest sailing ship afloat!" was the praise bestowed by seafaring men generally upon the Loch Garry when, in the year 1875, that vessel made her

first appearance upon the Australian Line. A glance at our illustration will satisfy the nautical

considerable advantage; for, by leaving a wide space between each of the spars, it enables the ship to keep all her sails drawing with the wind well aft, when a shorter ship, with lesser intervals between her masts, would have half her canvas becalmed and useless.

The first four-masted sailing ship was built by the Americans so long ago as 1856, and was called the Great Republic. She belonged to the Baltimore clipper school. She was indeed a monster vessel for those days. Her burthen was 4,000 tons, her length 305 feet, beam fifty-three feet, and her depth of hold thirty feet. But she had not been very long launched when all the upper part of her was destroyed by fire, and she was cut down by the removal of her topmost deck, which reduced her size by very nearly 600 tons. One illustration represents her in her razéé condition, crossing the Atlantic in ballast. She was one of the earliest vessels to be fitted with the double top-sail, then a new American invention which the English riggers did not adopt for some years after

reader that, although it is now sixteen years ago since she was launched, the Loch Garry may still be accepted in every respect as a very representative example of the modern iron clipper. Her burthen is nearly 1,500 tons net, her length, over all, about 266 feet. She gives one the impression, indeed, of being rather too long for her rig; the main-mast, instead of standing where seamen of the old school would expect to find it, is stepped right amidships, with the foremast and mizzenmast at exactly equal distances from it. Yet this arrangement is possessed of one

wards. Her first voyage was from New York to London. She was loaded with 3,000 tons of Peruvian guano, a weight of cargo that still left her with a freeboard as bold as a line-of-battle ship. She was thirteen days in thrashing across from Sandy Hook to the Scillies. Off those islands she fell in with a strong easterly gale, and beat up Channel in the teeth of it. This gave her an opportunity of displaying her wonderful weatherly qualities, and sixty hours later she had worked up as far as Dungeness Point. When she arrived in the Thames, however, she was

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