d reading, perhaps, but these
are wet by the spray and swept by the salt winds of romance. During one
of these four days the Sovereign of the Seas reeled off 424 nautical
miles, during which her average speed was seventeen and two-thirds knots
and at times reached nineteen and twenty. The only sailing ship which
ever exceeded this day's work was the Lightning, built later by the
same Donald McKay, which ran 436 knots in the Atlantic passage already
referred to. The Sovereign of the Seas could also boast of a sensational
feat upon the Western Ocean, for between New York and Liverpool she
outsailed the Cunard liner Canada by 325 miles in five days.

It is curiously interesting to notice that the California clipper era
is almost generally ignored by the foremost English writers of maritime
history. For one thing, it was a trade in which their own ships were not
directly concerned, and partizan bias is apt to color the views of
the best of us when national prestige is involved. American historians
themselves have dispensed with many unpleasant facts when engaged with
the War of 1812. With regard to the speed of clipper ships, however,
involving a rivalry far more thrilling and important than all the races
ever sailed for the America's cup, the evidence is available in concrete
form.

Lindsay's "History of Merchant Shipping" is the most elaborate English
work of the kind. Heavily ballasted with facts and rather dull reading
for the most part, it kindles with enthusiasm when eulogizing the
Thermopylae and the Sir Launcelot, composite clippers of wood and iron,
afloat in 1870, which it declares to be "the fastest sailing ships
that ever traversed the ocean." This fairly presents the issue which a
true-blooded Yankee has no right to evade. The greatest distance sailed
by the Sir Launcelot in twenty-four hours between China and London was
354 knots, compared with the 424 miles of the Sovereign of the Seas and
the 436 miles of the Lightning. Her best sustained run was one of seven
days for an average of a trifle more than 300 miles a day. Against this
is to be recorded the performance of the Sovereign of the Seas, 3562
miles in eleven days, at the rate of 324 miles every twenty-four hours,
and her wonderful four-day run of 1478 miles, an average of 378 miles.

The Thermopylae achieved her reputation in a passage of sixty-three days
from London to Melbourne--a record which was never beaten. Her fastest
day's sailing was 330 mile