premacy by accepting the challenge and winning the race; but in spite of all that was said the challenge was not accepted. Had it been, Captain Dumaresq would have commanded the American ship, and Lieutenant Maury was to have prepared special wind and current charts for his assistance. As nearly all the American clippers had been constructed for the California trade, it is probable that for an important race of this nature, two ships would have been built especially for the China trade, and very likely by Donald McKay and Samuel Hall, as the Flying Cloud, Flying Fish, Stag-Hound, Game-Cock, and Surprise had already placed these two in the front rank of clipper ship-builders. No reason was ever given for the non-acceptance of the challenge, though the inference seems obvious.
It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the Stornaway and Chrysolite were not fast vessels; for they were probably the two fastest ships sailing under the British flag at that time, and were ably commanded, and on a China voyage, which is very different sailing from a San Francisco or Australian passage, would have given any ship afloat a run for her owner's money. The fitful uncertainty of the monsoons in the China seas, with an occasional typhoon thrown in, has always rendered the voyages to and from China rather unsatisfactory tests of speed, and in this respect not to be compared with those to Australia or to San Francisco.
The Stornoway and Chrysolite were soon followed by other British clipper ships, among them the Abergeldie, of 600 tons register, built by Walter Hood & Co., of Aberdeen, in 1851. This vessel was
