THE FASTEST SHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 4, 6 January 1931, Page 6

THE FASTEST SHIP.

So long as sailormen go down to tie sea in ships there will always be arguments as to which craft was the fastest thing that ever spread wings to the winds of heaven. The claim by an American writer, recently reported in the "Star," and commented on by "Lee-Fore-Brace," that Flying Cloud, sailing under the Stars and Stripes, is entitled to be called the fastest ship is certainly absurd. The average of 5b knots throughout a voyage from New York to San Francisco does not come within hailing distance of the runs constantly made by British clippers in the LiverpoolMelbourne run. Nor is Flying Cloud's 374 knots in 24 hours within 50 mjles of the British sailing ship record for one day. > The American writer is not the only one in error. Sailormen whose memories go back to the halyeon days of >, Cutty Sark and Thermopylae are inclined to credit the wonderful ships they knew Avitli being faster than anything built before them—which is not altogether the case. I bow to their superior nautical knowledge, but not to their historical accuracy. "Chambers' Encyclopaedia," standard reference work, in its article on "Clippers," mentions by name only one vessel, Lightning, built by Donald McKay at Boston in 1854 for the Blackball Line, and credits her with 2550 miles in one week. Iji the days when the Victorian gold diggings were a tremendous magnet, the clippers of the White' Star and Blackball Lines were great rivals in the Liverpool to Melbourne run. The White Star clipper Shalimar, 1432 tons register, 4500 tons burden, frequently made the 14,000 miles' run in 67 to 70 days, averaging 09 days over many voyages, which means an average speed of eight miles per hour over the whole run. White Star, of the same line, 2300 tons register, 5000 tons burden, was another vessel that frequently made the passage in under 70 days. However, there seems some justification for the claim that Lightning was the fastest ship that ever spread white Avings. Before me as I write is a bound volume of "The Illustrated News- of the World" for 1858, which contains many sailing ship advertisements. Here is the Blackball Line's.notice of the impending departure of their crack clipper, taken from the last weekly issue in the volume: "The fastest ship in the world, the celebrated clipper Lightning, 2090 tons register, 4500 'burden, will sail from Liverpool for Melbourne on January C, 1859. She has made the passage from Melbourne to Liverpool, port to port, in 63 days, a feat never eveij, approached by any ship of any other line." (This works out at 9{- miles per hour over -the whole voyage.) "On March 19, 1857," the same notice continues, "she ran, by thoroughly good and trustworthy observations, the extraordinary distance of 430 knots, or 501 statute miles, being upwards of 18 knots, or 21 statute miles, per hour; during this time the ship carried her main skysail and studding sails." TJiat day's run of 430 knots seems to bowl out Flying Cloud's "record" of 374 knots, and, coupled with her many other speedy performances, entitles Lightning, not Thermopylae, nor any other craft, to be described as the fastest ship that ever sailed the seven seas. Lightning was J built in U.S.A. by a Scot expressly for the Blackball Line's Australian run, and flew the British flag through all her speedy Years. —F. H. BODLE.