[Illustration: Clipper Ship _SYREN_] In 1837 the papers announced that the _Sheffield_, Captain Allen, that came in second in the race had, within the past 12 months, made the eastward passage five times in succession in an aggregate of 91 days, "being an average of about 18 days each from port to port." In her next passage out she crossed in 16 days, thus creating a record of six passages in 103 days, "being a little over 17 days each." On April 24, 1836, the Liverpool _Albion_, under the heading "Unprecedented Quick Passage," told how the _Independence_, Captain E. Nye, had "sailed from New York on the evening of the 8th instant, and the interval between her leaving and taking the Liverpool pilot was only _fourteen days_ and five hours." "The passage from port to port has frequently been made in sixteen days; in the year 1822 the packet ship _New York_ made it in fifteen days and three-quarters; but the _Independence_ is the only ship that ever accomplished it within the fifteen days." The passengers on the _Independence_, "being desirous of commemorating the unparalleled short passage," appointed a committee to "procure and convey" to Captain Nye "a Piece of Plate with a suitable inscription." The _Independence_ measured only 734 tons. She was built in New York in 1834. In the course of the packet period five other liners made passages to Liverpool in fourteen days or less--the _Montezuma_, the _Patrick Henry_, the _Southampton_, the _St. Andrew_, and the _Dreadnought_. Under Captain Samuel Samuels the _Dreadnought_ was the most famous of them all. She ran in the St. George's line--A. Taylor & Co. Samuels was born in Philadelphia, on March 14, 1823. He ran away to sea when eleven years old, and at twenty-one, after a venturesome career, was placed in command of a ship called the _Angelique_. In 1853 the _Dreadnought_ (1413 tons) was built especially for him, and as he told the writer she was a ship of "medium full lines." And yet in her first voyage to Liverpool and back[7] she reached Sandy Hook just as the Cunard steamer _Canada_, which had left Liverpool one day ahead of her, was arriving at Boston. On Saturday, February 9, 1856, the Liverpool _Chronicle_, under the head lines "Important from America. Five days later--Arrival of the _Dreadnought_," said:-- "The clipper _Dreadnought_, Captain Samuels, ... arrived here this forenoon from New York after a rapid passage of fourteen days and eight hours." [Illustration: Captain Samuel Samuels By courtesy of _Harper's Magazine_] It took three years to beat that passage, but in 1859 Samuels drove her from Sandy Hook to Rock Light, Liverpool, 3000 miles, in 13 days and 8 hours. And in 1860 he ran from Sandy Hook to Queenstown, a distance of 2760 miles, in 9 days and 17 hours, a record never equalled either before or since.