The _Cutty Sark_ was not as fast as the _Thermopylæ_ and _Sir Lancelot_, but in 1872, although she had her rudder carried away on the voyage, she ran home from Shanghai in 122 days. The _Thermopylæ_ was a composite clipper of 947 tons register. She was 210 feet long by 36 feet beam and 21 feet deep. She was designed by Mr. Waymouth for Messrs. Thompson & Co. The _Sir Lancelot_ was, like the _Thermopylæ_, a composite ship, and was built by Messrs. Steel, of Greenock, for Mr. James McCunn. She was 886 tons register, 197 feet long, 33 feet 7 inches broad and 21 feet deep. When fully laden with 300 tons of ballast and 1430 tons of tea, she drew 18 feet 7 inches of water forward and 2 inches more aft. Her complement was 30, and when in racing trim she spread more than an acre of canvas. Her best run in twenty-four hours was of 354 miles. The article contributed recently by Mr. Bullen to the periodical already mentioned set on foot an interesting correspondence, in which some valuable facts were brought out by those who had actually served on these clipper-ships. And since the days of man are but three score years and ten, and before many more decades have run all those who went to sea in these magnificent ships will have passed away, I have thought it worth while to preserve here some of their recollections. The authors having adopted pseudonyms, I am unable to give their names. One correspondent states that he remembers to have sailed 368 miles in one day, and 1000 miles in three days. One ship made a passage from the Start to the Ridge Lightship (30 miles from the mouth of the Hooghly) in 86 days. This was the _Northampton_, owned by Messrs. Soames and Co., of London. But other ships, including Messrs. Green’s _Alnwick Castle_, did it in 69 days. On September 23, 1863, the _Hotspur_ arrived at Madras in 79 days. [Illustration: FIG. 74 THE IRON CLIPPER “STONEHOUSE.” BUILT IN 1866. _From the model in the South Kensington Museum._] The illustration in Fig. 74 is taken from a model in the South Kensington Museum, and represents the iron clipper _Stonehouse_. It will be noticed she is ship-rigged; she was launched at Pallion in 1866. She has a full poop and topgallant forecastle, with considerable accommodation for carrying first-class passengers and cargo. Her displacement at load line is 2600 tons; her actual tonnage worked out at 1298; her length 220·5 feet, breadth 37 feet, depth 22·66 feet, and her load draught 19·25 feet. It will be noticed that she has double topsails, and her lines will give one an adequate idea of the famous clippers of the ’sixties.