Each of the clippers had her devoted admirers, who gave tangible proof of loyalty by investing money liberally in support of their belief in her speed. At that period the merchants and ship-owners of Boston used to meet “on ‘change” in front of the old Merchants’ Exchange in State Street, and before going home to their comfortable two o’clock dinners, these old-time gentlemen would lay many a quiet wager upon the _Northern Light_, _Flying Fish_, _Witch of the Wave_, _Raven_, _John Bertram_, _Shooting Star_, or _Game Cock_ as to their relative speed and the length of their passages from Boston to San Francisco. In New York the Astor House was the meeting-place of merchants, ship-builders, and sea-captains, who carried on endless arguments concerning the merits of the clipper ships, their builders, owners, and captains, and discussed the latest shipping news with untiring earnestness. These men knew whereof they spoke, for almost any evening there was sufficient capital represented by ship-owners to pay for half a dozen clippers, and the men were there also who could build and navigate them. Occasionally an argument would reach a point of animation where something had to be done, and one might hear a remark very much like this: “No, no, Henry, I can’t do that, but I will lay five dollars at one to three on the _Challenge_ against the fleet, bar one, or the same even on the _Flying Cloud_ against the _N. B. Palmer_.” These were pleasant evenings, gay with the clink of mugs and glasses and the murmur of small talk and laughter rippling among wreaths of smoke from fragrant Havanas, until, at a little before ten, Michael, the venerable barkeeper would announce, “Gentlemen, I will take the last orders of the evening; we close in ten minutes.” The interest in clippers was not confined to seamen and capitalists, for when the mail steamer from Aspinwall was reported toiling up the bay, there would be a large number of persons patiently waiting on the wharf, who were not expecting friends among the passengers or crew, but who had come to hear the latest news, then five or six weeks old, of arrivals of clipper ships at San Francisco. The first clipper to arrive at San Francisco from New York in 1851 in less than 110 days was the _Seaman_, a smart little Baltimore ship of 546 tons. She made a fine passage of 107 days, arriving on March 11th.