Before English merchants could prepare themselves for these new
conditions, the American clipper Oriental was loading in 1850 at
Hong Kong with tea for the London market. Because of her
reputation for speed, she received freightage of six pounds
sterling per ton while British ships rode at anchor with empty
holds or were glad to sail at three pounds ten per ton. Captain
Theodore Palmer delivered his sixteen hundred tons of tea in the
West India Docks, London, after a crack passage of ninety-one
days which had never been equaled. His clipper earned $48,000, or
two-thirds of what it had cost to build her. Her arrival in
London created a profound impression. The port had seen nothing
like her for power and speed; her skysail yards soared far above
the other shipping; the cut of her snowy canvas was faultless;
all clumsy, needless tophamper had been done away with; and she
appeared to be the last word in design and construction, as lean
and fine and spirited as a race-horse in training.

This new competition dismayed British shipping until it could
rally and fight with similar weapons The technical journal, Naval
Science, acknowledged that the tea trade of the London markets
had passed almost out of the hands of the English ship-owner, and
that British vessels, well-manned and well-found, were known to
lie for weeks in the harbor of Foo-chow, waiting for a cargo and
seeing American clippers come in, load, and sail immediately with
full cargoes at a higher freight than they could command. Even
the Government viewed the loss of trade with concern and sent
admiralty draftsmen to copy the lines of the Oriental and
Challenge while they were in drydock.

British clippers were soon afloat, somewhat different in model