The _Stornoway_ was commanded by Captain Richard Robinson, and on her first voyage she made the passage from the Downs to Java Head in 80 days, to Hong-kong in 102 days, and from Hong-kong to London in 103 days. These were at that time the quickest passages between these ports that had ever been made by a British vessel. In 1851 Alexander Hall & Co. built the China tea-clipper _Chrysolite_, of 471 tons, for Taylor & Potter of Liverpool; length 149 feet 3 inches, breadth 29 feet, depth 17 feet. As will be seen this vessel approached more nearly the proportions of the _Race Horse_, having 8 feet 5 inches less length than the _Stornoway_, with 3 feet 4 inches more breadth, and 8 inches less depth. She made her first passage from Liverpool to Canton, under the command of Captain Anthony Enright, in 102 days, and came home in 104 days. She also made the passage from Liverpool to Java Head in 80 days, her best day’s run being 320 miles. The very keen rivalry between the British and American clipper ships engaged in the China trade at this time, seems to have been stimulating to the imagination. W. S. Lindsay, in his _History of Merchant Shipping_ (vol. iii., p. 291), relates an interesting story of one of the early races, and as I wish to do the narrative full justice, I give it in Mr. Lindsay’s own words: “Mr. T. C. Cowper, of Aberdeen, himself a member of a well-known ship-building firm in Aberdeen, who had spent some time in China at the period to which I refer, and to whom I am much indebted for the information connected with our struggles to maintain our position in that trade, gives the following graphic description of his voyage home in the _Ganges_, Captain Deas, belonging to Leith, one of the vessels we had sent forth after the repeal of our Navigation Laws, to compete with the Americans in that trade: ‘We loaded,’ he says, ‘new teas at Wampoa, and sailed on the first of September, 1851. Two of the fastest American clippers, the _Flying Cloud_ and _Bald Eagle_, sailed two or three days after us. A great deal of excitement existed in China about the race, the American ships being the favorites. The southwest monsoon being strong, the _Ganges_ made a rather long passage to Anjer, but when we arrived there we found that neither of our rivals had been reported as having passed. We arrived in the English Channel on the evening of the 16th of December. On the following morning at daylight we were off Portland, well inshore and under short sail, light winds from the northeast, and weather rather thick. About 8 A.M. the wind freshened and the haze cleared away, which showed two large and lofty ships two or three miles to windward of us. They proved to be our American friends, having their Stars and Stripes flying for a pilot. Captain Deas at once gave orders to hoist his signals for a pilot also, and as, by this time, several cutters were standing out from Weymouth, the _Ganges_, being farthest inshore got her pilot first on board.