What of the crews that manned the American clippers? “The history of men before the mast on board American ships,” says Captain Clark, “is not a history of American sailors, for strictly speaking there have never been any American merchant sailors as a class; that is, no American merchant ship of considerable tonnage was ever manned by native-born Americans in the sense that French, British, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish or Danish ships are manned by men born in the country under whose flags they sail.” This statement was written in 1910, and of course requires some modification to-day. But the advent of the Californian clippers necessitated getting men from anywhere—some sailors, many others not, and a whole lot of “bad hats” among them. Of the Californian clippers built in 1851 one was the celebrated _Challenge_, already referred to, a vessel of 2006 tons, one of the largest clippers ever built, though absolutely the biggest was the _Great Republic_, built in 1853. This was constructed by Donald McKay, the famous Nova Scotian builder. She was of 4555 tons register, and was the first ship to have an engine merely for hoisting the yards and working the pumps. Rigged with four masts, she had the misfortune to get on fire when nearly ready for sea, but was rebuilt, being the largest merchant ship of her time, though registering now only 3357 tons. The famous American clipper _Dreadnought_ came out in 1853, and voyaged between New York and Liverpool, and on one occasion made this passage in fifteen days twelve hours, and on another occasion in thirteen days eight hours, though she was wrecked eventually off Cape Horn. But the Australian gold discovery in 1851 had the same effect on shipping that the China tea trade and the California gold rush had created. The fastest vessels were required, competition became keen, and there was no time to waste. Those owners, therefore, who had ships that could carry passengers were in a splendid position from the first, for about 300,000 or 400,000 people each year for the next three or four years had to be transported. From America no less than from England these ships sailed away, and there was the same difficulty in Melbourne with the crews as there had been in San Francisco. [Illustration: [_By courtesy the White Star Line._ SAILING NOTICE OF THE WHITE STAR CLIPPER “RED JACKET.” (See p. 157.)]