t time there had been few ships afloat as large as a thousand
tons. These were of a new type, rapidly increased to fifteen hundred,
two thousand tons, and over. They presented new and difficult problems
in spars and rigging able to withstand the strain of immense areas of
canvas which climbed two hundred feet to the skysail pole and which,
with lower studdingsails set, spread one hundred and sixty feet from
boom-end to boom-end. There had to be the strength to battle with the
furious tempests of Cape Horn and at the same time the driving power to
sweep before the sweet and steadfast tradewinds. Such a queenly clipper
was the Flying Cloud, the achievement of that master builder, Donald
McKay, which sailed from New York to San Francisco in eighty-nine days,
with Captain Josiah Creesy in command. This record was never lowered and
was equaled only twice--by the Flying Cloud herself and by the Andrew
Jackson nine years later. It was during this memorable voyage that
the Flying Cloud sailed 1256 miles in four days while steering to the
northward under topgallantsails after rounding Cape Horn. This was a
rate of speed which, if sustained, would have carried her from New York
to Queenstown in eight days and seventeen hours. This speedy passage was
made in 1851, and only two years earlier the record for the same voyage
of fifteen thousand miles had been one hundred and twenty days, by the
clipper Memnon.

Donald McKay now resolved to build a ship larger and faster than the
Flying Cloud, and his genius neared perfection in the Sovereign of the
Seas, of 2421 tons register, which exceeded in size all merchant vessels
afloat. This Titan of the clipper fleet was commanded by Donald's
brother, Captain Lauchlan McKay, with a crew of one hundred and five
men and boys. During her only voyage to San Francisco she was partly
dismasted, but Lauchlan McKay rigged her anew at sea in fourteen days
and still made port in one hundred and three days, a record for the
season of the year.

It was while running home from Honolulu in 1853 that the Sovereign of
the Seas realized the hopes of her builder. In eleven days she sailed
3562 miles, with four days logged for a total of 1478 knots. Making
allowance for the longitudes and difference in time, this was an average
daily run of 378 sea miles or 435 land miles. Using the same comparison,
the distance from Sandy Hook to Queenstown would have been covered in
seven days and nine hours. Figures are ari