steamers traversing the seas today, only a few are capable of a
speed of more than eighteen knots.

This clipper Lightning did her 436 sea miles in one day, or
eighteen and a half knots, better than twenty land miles an hour,
and this is how the surpassing feat was entered in her log, or
official journal: "March 1. Wind south. Strong gales; bore away
for the North Channel, carrying away the foretopsail and lost
jib; hove the log several times and found the ship going through
the water at the rate of 18 to 18 1/2 knots; lee rail under water
and rigging slack. Distance run in twenty-four hours, 436 miles."
The passage was remarkably fast, thirteen days and nineteen and a
half hours from Boston Light, but the spectacular feature was
this day's work. It is a fitting memorial of the Yankee clipper,
and, save only a cathedral, the loveliest, noblest fabric ever
wrought by man's handiwork.

The clipper, however, was a stranger in the Atlantic and her
chosen courses were elsewhere. The records made by the James
Baines and the Lightning were no discredit to the stanch,
unconquerable packet ships which, year in and year out, held
their own with the steamer lines until just before the Civil War.
It was the boast of Captain Samuels that on her first voyage in
1853 the Dreadnought reached Sandy Hook as the Cunarder Canada,
which had left Liverpool a day ahead of her, was passing in by
Boston Light. Twice she carried the latest news to Europe, and
many seasoned travelers preferred her to the mail steamers.

The masters and officers who handled these ships with such
magnificent success were true-blue American seamen, inspired by