Monday, 3rd November.—Lat. 34° 41′ N., Long. 38° 28′ W. Distance 113 miles. In the middle watch wind backed to the N.E. and fell light again. At 8, improvement again and by noon we lay N.E. by N., the best we have done for some days, but only going from 4½ to 5 knots. A ship coming up astern, supposed to be the _James Baines_, bringing up a fair wind. Tuesday, 4th November.—Lat. 35° 47′ N., Long. 38° 28′ W. Distance 66 miles. Commences with very light airs from the north, our ship on the port tack. Our friend _James Baines_ again in sight astern. And this was the last the _Lightning_ saw of the _James Baines_ though the two ships arrived in the Mersey within 24 hours of each other, the _Lightning_ leading. Both anchored in the river on 20th November, the _Lightning_ being 84 days out, and the _James Baines_ 105 days. The following comparison between the two passages is interesting, as it shows that the two ships took the same number of days from the equator to Liverpool, viz., 40 days:— +--------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | | _James Baines_ | _Lightning_ | | | | | | Points Between +-----+-------------+-----+-------------+ | | Days| Date Passed | Days| Date Passed | +--------------------------+-----+-------------+-----+-------------+ | | | | | | |Melbourne to Cape Horn | 36 | Sept. 12 | 24 | Sept 1 | |Cape Horn to equator | 29 | Oct. 11 | 20 | Oct 9 | |Equator to Western Isles | 28 | Nov. 8 | 29 | Nov. 7 | |Western Isles to Liverpool| 12 | Nov. 20 | 11 | Nov. 20 | +--------------------------+-----+-------------+-----+-------------+ Best 24-hours’ run 356 miles 377 miles. The _James Baines_ was simply unlucky in having a very light weather passage. Donald Mackay’s ships were never light weather flyers, in spite of setting every kind of light weather kite, from tiny “bulldog,” as they called the moonsail on the main, down to the lowest watersail, that barely cleared the wave crests. Whilst we are comparing the speeds of _James Baines_ and _Lightning_, it is only fair to do so in heavy weather as well as light. I therefore give below the logs of their best week’s work on their respective outward passages in 1856. Here it will be seen the _James Baines_ just has the best of it. I have taken the remarks for _Lightning’s_ run from the _Lightning Gazette_, not the ship’s log. BEST WEEK’S RUN BY _James Baines_, LIVERPOOL TO MELBOURNE, MAY, 1856.