“This soon became a matter of serious moment, and the arrival of these vessels in the Thames caused great excitement, and aroused no small amount of curiosity and criticism. Even the attention of the Government became attracted towards them, and draughtsmen were sent from the Admiralty to take off the lines of two of the most famous--the _Challenge_ and the _Oriental_--when they were in Messrs. Green’s drydock.” This state of affairs could not, of course, continue without further arousing British ship-owners and builders to the danger of their position. Here was not one vessel, but a fleet of American clippers bringing cargoes from China at double the rates of freight that British ships could command, and unless some measures were adopted to check this invasion no one could predict where it might end. That British merchants paid so liberally to get their teas to a home market was certainly not because they cherished any special affection for American ships or their owners. They would have been quite as willing to pay British clippers the same freights, had there been any such to receive them, or even Chinese junks, provided the service could have been performed by them as quickly and as well. So we find the British ship-owners and builders of that period forced to exert their finest skill and most ardent energy. The firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of London and China, were the owners of the first clipper ship built in Great Britain. This vessel was the _Stornoway_, 506 tons, launched from the yard of Alexander Hall & Co., at Aberdeen, toward the close of 1850 for the China trade. It will be recalled that this firm had built the clipper schooner _Torrington_, for the same owners, four years before. The new ship was named for Stornoway Castle, Lewis, one of the Hebrides Isles, which was then owned by Sir James Matheson, and to which he retired after his long and successful career as ship-owner and merchant in the China trade. It cannot be said that the _Stornoway_ was a copy of any American model, as a comparison of dimensions will clearly show. Comparing her measurements with those of the American clipper, barque _Race Horse_, of 512 tons register, built by Samuel Hall at East Boston in the same year, we find: Length Breadth Depth _Stornoway_ 157 ft. 8 in. 25 ft. 8 in. 17 ft. 8 in. _Race Horse_ 125 ft. 30 ft. 16 ft. Thus the _Stornoway_, while she exceeded the _Race Horse_ by 32 feet 8 inches in length and by 1 foot 8 inches in depth, yet had 4 feet 4 inches less breadth; and here began a contest, which extended over so many years, of breadth against length and depth. There can be no doubt that the _Stornoway_ with more beam and the _Race Horse_ with more length and depth, would have been faster, but at the same time considerably larger vessels.[8] [Illustration: The “Stornoway”]