The following details of her construction, taken from an American paper, may be of interest to present day wood shipwrights:—“Her entire frame was of seasoned white oak and all her hooks, pointers and knees were of the same wood, her planking and ceiling being of hard pine, and she was square fastened throughout and butt and bilge bolted with copper. The keel was of rock maple in two depths, each 16 inches square. The floor timbers were moulded 21 inches on the keel and sided from 12 to 13 inches, and over them were four tiers of midship keelsons, each 16 inches square, and on each side of these were two depths of sister keelsons of the same size, the whole scarphed and keyed and fastened with 1¾ inch bolting. The whole frame, fore and aft, was diagonally cross-braced with iron, 5 inches wide, ⅞ of an inch thick and 38 feet long. These braces were bolted through every frame and through every intersection; were let into the timbers and ceiling and extended from the first futtocks to the top timbers. All the waterways as well as the keelsons and ceiling were scarphed and bolted in the most substantial style. The upper deck was of white pine 3½ inches thick and the other decks of hard pine of the same substance. Her ends were almost filled with massive hooks and pointers. The hooks in the between decks were beamed and kneed and fastened through all. Her garboards were 9 by 15 inches, the next strake 8 by 14, the third 7 by 14; the bottom planking 5 inches thick, the wales 6 by 7 and the waist 4¼ inches thick, the whole finished smooth as joiner work and strongly fastened.” The _Champion of the Seas_ had about the same sail area and spar measurements as the _Lightning_. Her masts and bowsprit were built of hard pine and the masts were 74 and 63 feet apart. The foremast raked ½ inch to the foot, the main ⅝ and the mizen 1 inch. When she left the builders her working suit of sails consisted of 12,500 yards of American cotton, 18 inches in width. She was of course painted the regulation Black Ball colours, black outside and white inside, with blue waterways. Her masts white, mastheads and yards black, and stunsail booms bright with black ends. Captain Alexander Newlands was sent out from Liverpool to superintend her outfit and take command, the lighting and ventilation below being carried out according to his designs. On her completion the _Champion of the Seas_ was towed to New York by the famous Boston tug _R. B. Forbes_ and from thence came across to Liverpool in the month of June in 16 days. She left Liverpool on her first voyage to Australia on 11th October, 1854, and arrived out in 72 days, coming home again in 84, thus proving herself quite up to the standard of the famous Black Ball Line, and from that date she was always a favourite ship. [Illustration: “JAMES BAINES.” _From a painting by Captain D. O. Robertson, late commander of ship “Lightning.”_] The “James Baines.”