in ninety-one days, which was equaled by the Sir Launcelot. The
American Witch of the Wave had a ninety-day voyage to her credit,
and the Comet ran from Liverpool to Shanghai in eighty-four days.
Luck was a larger factor on this route than in the California or
Australian trade because of the fitful uncertainty of the
monsoons, and as a test of speed it was rather unsatisfactory. In
a very fair-minded and expert summary, Captain Arthur H. Clark,*
in his youth an officer on Yankee clippers, has discussed this
question of rival speed and power under sail--a question which
still absorbs those who love the sea. His conclusion is that in
ordinary weather at sea, when great power to carry sail was not
required, the British tea clippers were extremely fast vessels,
chiefly on account of their narrow beam. Under these conditions
they were perhaps as fast as the American clippers of the same
class, such as the Sea Witch, White Squall, Northern Light, and
Sword-Fish. But if speed is to be reckoned by the maximum
performance of a ship under the most favorable conditions, then
the British tea clippers were certainly no match for the larger
American ships such as the Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas,
Hurricane, Trade Wind, Typhoon, Flying Fish, Challenge, and Red
Jacket. The greater breadth of the American ships in proportion
to their length meant power to carry canvas and increased
buoyancy which enabled them, with their sharper ends, to be
driven in strong gales and heavy seas at much greater speed than
the British clippers. The latter were seldom of more than one
thousand tons' register and combined in a superlative degree the
good qualities of merchant ships.

* "The Clipper Ship Era." N.Y., 1910.