The frenzy for faster, larger ships grew to unprecedented heights all through 1850, and the New York shipyards could no longer fill the demands. All along the northeast coast of the United States, the rush was on to build "ninety day ships," as merchants scoured Atlantic ports for shipbuilders who could build a ship in four months or less.
Baltimore shipyards were busy all summer and two small clippers slid down the ways, the Seaman and the North Carolina. The Seaman cleared New York on November 16, 1850, and made a very fine 107-day passage around the Horn.
Larger clippers slid down the ways in the New York yards. The 1300-ton Eclipse was launched at Jabez Williams' yard in Williamsburg for T. Wardle & Co., of New York.
The 1200-ton White Squall was launched at Jacob Bell's shipyard for Platt & Co. of Philadelphia.
The 600-ton Nicholas I was built for the Russian American Fur Company at the Smith & Dimon yard, and this was the first clipper ship built for a foreign account.
Maine shipyards were busy that summer. At the Damariscotta shipyard of Metcalf & Norris, the 764-ton Alert was built for New York merchants Crocker & Warren and launched in November. She sailed to New York to load cargo for the Horn. Also launched in Eastport, Maine that summer, was the 610-ton Gray Feather. Both ships cleared for California from New York in January 1851.
A number of clipper barques slid down the ways in Maine as well, including the beautiful Black Squall. In the coming years, Maine would turn out a growing number of clipper ships.
George Raynes was from York, Maine, and had gone to Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1835 and opened up a shipyard, where he built many fast schooners and ships including a number of opium clippers.
His shipyard was located on the former lush estate of Colonel George Boyd, renowned for its bountiful fruit, vegetable, and flower gardens and the rich variety of fragrances mingled with the sawdust blowing in the wind over the picturesque landscape by the sea that had always been the pride of Portsmouth.
There, the Sea Serpent, the first true "Down East" clipper ship, grew in the stocks and was by all accounts a truly magnificent looking ship. This Boston Atlas account, dated November 20, 1850, summed it up rather well:
THE CLIPPER SHIP SEA SERPENT.- This is the second clipper on a larger scale which has been built in New England this season; the Surprise, built at East Boston, was the first. The Sea Serpent is about 1300 tons. She is 212 feet long over all, has 39 feet 3 inches extreme breadth of beam, and 21 feet depth of hold. She is very sharp forward and beautifully proportioned aft, without being cut up like a center-board, and broadside on she looks rakish and saucy.
To use a nautical phrase, 'her model fills the eye like a full moon,' and her strength and workmanship are of the highest order. She is owned by Messrs. Grinnell, Minturn & Co., of New York, and was built at Portsmouth, N.H., by Mr. George Raynes. A large number of gentlemen from this city and New York will be present to welcome her on the waters.
The Sea Serpent sailed to New York to load cargo for San Francisco. The New York Herald described her thus:
Her bow partakes of the wedge in appearance, and she is very sharp, but her lines are nearly rounded. Her bow is tastefully ornamented with a large gilded Eagle, with outstretched wings, beautifully carved, and has a simple and very neat appearance. Her hull is entirely black, excepting a narrow yellow line which relieves the sameness and looks much smarter than the white streak, so common on other vessels.
The model of the Sea Serpent is one that the greatest grumbler would be at a loss to find the smallest fault with. Head on she has a most rakish appearance, and her lines swell along the bow into their utmost fullness, and then taper off again into the clean run, they show incontestably that 'the line of beauty' has been made the guide in her construction. They are as perfect as perfection itself.
Her stern is most beautifully proportioned, and is tastefully decorated with two carved full length representations of the Great American Sea Spirit.
The Sea Serpent cleared for San Francisco on January 11, 1851, and was expected to make a swift passage to the Golden Gate in 100 days or less. Unfavorable adverse winds prevailed throughout her maiden voyage to the Horn, where heavy gales tossed the ship around. Spars were lost, sails split, and the Sea Serpent was forced to put in to Valparaiso for repairs for eight days. The Sea Serpent sailed on to San Francisco, but light winds slowed her down and she did not reach the Golden Gate until May 17th after 114 sailing days had elapsed, a good run considering the circumstances. The Sea Serpent was soon off on a 42-day voyage to China.
In the fall of 1850, George B. Upton, by then caught up in the growing excitement and frenzy to send swift clippers around the Horn, was now willing to take a chance. He gave Donald McKay the go-ahead to build an "extreme" clipper for Sampson & Tappan, prominent East Indian merchants in Boston. This time around, Upton was in a hurry for Donald McKay to build a large clipper for the Cape Horn run, and certainly had second thoughts about not giving Donald McKay the go-ahead earlier that year in April when the Reindeer was launched.
The contract called for a ship of 1534 tons. The keel alone was 207 feet between perpendiculars, and 215 feet overall in length, with a depth of hold of 21 feet, depth of keel, 46 inches; deadrise, 40 inches; shear, 30 inches. The Stag Hound was the largest merchant ship built in 1850, and was sharper and longer than any other merchant vessel. She was designed with stability and speed in mind and George B. Upton gave Donald McKay a free hand to design the Stag Hound as he wanted to. Donald McKay would take full responsibility for her sailing qualities and would go on to build her in 100 days.
Donald McKay had built seventeen ships up till then and was looking forward to his first opportunity to build a California clipper. With the Stag Hound, however, he chose to deviate from the flat-floored design of the Sea Witch that Griffiths had come up with, and instead chose to go with more of a V-bottomed hull such as Griffiths had originally promoted in his early days in the design of the Rainbow.
Right before the Stag Hound’s keel was laid in late August, 1850, Donald McKay gave an interview to the Boston Atlas and showed his model of the Stag Hound to the newspaper reporter and pointed out her various characteristics while seemingly concealing nothing. Keeping secrets while working on a ship in the yard was a hard thing to do with their large numbers of draftsmen, designers, and shipwrights all about, and little attempt was made to do so. The keen-eyed observer could take in a ship at a glance.
The only ones secretive about the goings on in the shipyards were the merchant ship owners, who did not want their business rivals to get the upper hand by knowing about their business dealings in advance as to the size of their ships being built.
George P. Upton and Samson & Tappan were quite explicit about this and Donald McKay was only too glad to oblige, and during the interview he stated that the Stag Hound was to be a vessel of 1200 tons, with a 180 foot keel and a deck of 185 feet. Upon reading the account that appeared in the August 25, 1850 edition of the Boston Atlas, Upton’s business rivals went on to build their own clippers in the twelve to thirteen hundred-ton range. By the time they completed their vessels several months later, they discovered that the Stag Hound was actually a vessel of 1600 tons, much larger than the newspaper account had stated, thus preserving Upton and Samson & Tappan’s edge over their rivals.
It was a bitterly cold December 7, 1850. Drift ice flowed in the harbor and deep snow covered the ground. As noon approached, an estimated crowd of twelve to fifteen thousand people gathered at the McKay shipyard in East Boston to witness the launch. Some thought that the launching might have to be postponed because it was so cold and it was feared that the tallow might freeze on the ways, but the Stag Hound was ready to begin her journey into the sea. A gang of workmen soon poured boiling whale oil upon the ways.
At noon, the signal was given to knock away the dog shores and the Stag Hound began her rapid journey down the smoking ways as the foreman of the yard hurriedly grabbed a bottle of Medford rum. Then he smashed it across her forefront, shouting out "Stag Hound your name's Stag Hound!" as she plunged into the icy harbor waters as the shivering crowds from the pavilion cheered on. Church bells of Boston chimed out a welcome to the Stag Hound, the largest clipper to glide down the ways in 1850, and soon to be the largest merchant ship in the world.
Duncan McLean, a good friend of Donald McKay's, wrote of the Stag Hound in the Boston Atlas:
THE NEW CLIPPER SHIP STAG HOUND, OF BOSTON
This magnificent ship has been the wonder of all who have seen her. Not only is she the largest of her class afloat, but her model may be said to be the original of a new idea in naval architecture. She is longer and sharper than any other vessel in the merchant services of the world, while breadth of beam and depth of hold are designed with special reference to stability. Every element in her has been made subservient to speed; she is therefore her builder's beau ideal of swiftness; for in designing her, he was not interfered with by her owners. He alone, therefore, is responsible for her sailing qualities.
She is 207 feet long on the keel, 215 between perpendiculars on deck, and 226 feet from the knightheads to the luffrail----. The whole rake of her stem on deck is 6 feet, and of her sternpost 2 feet. She has 40 feet extreme breadth of beam, 21 feet breadth of hold, and will register 1600 tons. Her depth of keel is 46 inches, dead rise at half floor 40 inches, rounding of sides 4 inches, and shear 2 feet 6 inches. She is uncommonly sharp forward, yet her bow bears no resemblance to that of a steamer; it seems to have grown naturally from the fullness of her model to a point, but so beautifully proportioned that the eye lingers on it with delight. It is exceedingly plain, divested of flare or flourish, and is carried up from its leanest to its fullest lines on the rail, without variation in its outline. That is, its angular form is preserved up to its knightheads; consequently, it has neither humps or corners to mark its bluff. An idea of its sharpness may be formed from the fact that, at the load displacement line (as the catwater is tapered to an angle,) a flat surface applied to the bow from its extreme, would show no angle at the hood ends. Her bow commences at the cutwater, and swells from that point in unbroken carvature. Sharp as she is, her lines are all rounded, and skillfully, too, that they almost seem parallel to one another.
A carved and gilded stag hound, represented panting in the chase, and carved work around the hawse-holes and on the ends of her cat-heads, comprise her ornamental work about the bow. She has neither head boards nor trail boards, and may be said to be naked forward, yet this very nakedness, like that of a sculptured Venus, true to nature, constitutes the crowning element of her symmetry forward. As she is five feet higher forward than aft, she sits upon the water ready for a spring ahead. Broadside on, her great length, the smoothness of her outline, and the buoyancy of her sheer, combined with the regularity of her planking, and the neatness of her mouldings, impress upon the eye a form as perfect as if it had been cast in a mould. She is planked flush to the planksheer, and its moulding is carried from the extreme of the head round her stern. He stern is elliptical, finely formed, and very light. The eye directed along her rail from the quarter to the bow, would perceive that her outline at the extreme is as perfect as the spring of a steel bow. The planking along the upper part of the run is carried up to the line of the planksheer and there terminates, and this is done too without any irregularity in the width. Below, the planking from the opposite sides meets, and the butts form a series of plain angles down to the stern post. Her run is rounded, not concave like that of most ships, and at the load displacement line, is apparently the counterpart of the bow, for her greatest breadth of beam is about amidships. An idea of the smallness of her stern may be formed from the fact, that at 8 feet from the midships of the taffrail, over all, she is only 24 1/2 feet wide. the stern projects about 7 feet beyond the sternpost. A stag, her name and other devices, neatly executed, ornament her stern. Mr. Gleason, a young artist of much promise, made her carved work.
Her keel is of rock maple and oak, in two depths, which, combined with the shoe moulds 46 inches, and sides 16. The scarphs of the keel are from 8 to 10 feet in length and are sheathed ---- with copper and the parts of the keel are also bolted together with the same kind of metal. Her top-timbers are of hackmatack, but the rest of her frame and balwark stanchions are of white oak. The floor timbers on the keel are sided from 10 to 12 inches, and are moulded from 14 to 16, and are alternately bolted with inch and a quarter copper through the keel. She has three depths of midship keelsons, which combined, mould 42 and side 15 inches. The second keelson is bolted with iron through every navel timber blunt into the keel, and the upper one is secured in the same style. She has sister keelsons 14 inches square, bolted diagonally thorough the navel timbers into the keel, and horizontally through the lower midship keelson, and each other. Her hold stanchions are 10 inches square, and are kneed to the beams above and to the keelson below, so that their lower arms form almost a rider along the top of the keelson. Including their depth and the moulding of the floor timbers, she is over 9 feet through the back bone.
The ceiling on her floor is 4 1/2 inches thick, square bolted, not tacked on with spikes and all the ceiling from the bilge to the deck in the hold is 7 inches thick, scarped and square fastened. She has also a stringer of 12 by 15 inches, upon which the ends of the hanging knees rest, and are fayed. The knees connected with the beams of both decks, are of hackmatack. The hanging knees in the hold are sided from 10 to 11 inches, are moulded from 2 feet to 26 inches in the throats, and have 16 bolts and 4 spikes in each. In the between decks the knees have 18 bolts and 4 spikes in them, are ended about 10 inches, and moulded in the angles from 20 to 22 inches. the hold beams average about 16 by 17 inches, and those in the between decks 10 by 16, and are of hard pine. She has a pair of pointers 30 ---- feet long in each end, 3 breast-hooks and 3 after-hooks, all of oak and closely bolted. Her hold is caulked and payed from the timber boards to the deck.
The between decks are 7 feet high; their waterways are 15 inches square, the strake inside of them 9 by 12 inches, and the two over them combined 10 by 18. They are all cross bolted in the usual style. The ceiling above is 6 inches thick, square bolted; and all the thick work is carried fore and aft and round the stern. Her between deck stanchions are of oak turned, secured with iron rods through their centres which set up below. The breast hook in this deck extends well aft, and is closely bolted. Her deck hooks, and the hooks above and below the bowsprit, are very stout, and well secured.
The upper deck waterways are 12 inches square, and the two strakes inside of them each 4 1/2 by 6 inches let over the beams below and cross bolted. The planking of both decks is 3 1/2 inches thick, of white pine.
Her garboards are 7 inches thick, bolted through each other and the keel, and upwards through the timbers and the floor, and riveted. The strakes outside of them are graduated to 4 1/2 inches, the substance of the planking on the bottom, and she has 16 wales, each 5 1/2 by 6 inches. As before stated, she is planked up flush to the covering board. Her bulwarks, including the monkey rail, are 6 1/2 feet high; and between the main and rack rails she has a stout clamp bolted through the stanchions, and vertically, through both rails. The boarding of her bulwarks is very narrow, and is neatly tongued and grooved, and fastened with composition. More than usual care has been bestowed in driving her bilge and butt bolts, and the treenails, in order to obtain the nicest possible state of finish outside, combined with strength through all.
She is seasoned with salt, and has ventilators in her decks and along the line of planksheer, for and aft, and also in the butts. Her bowsprit and windlass bits, also the foretopsail sheet bitts are all of choice white oak, and are strongly kneed above and below. Her maintopmast stays lead on deck, and set up to the bitts before the foremast.
She has a topgallant forecastle, the height of the main rail, in the after wings of which she has water closets for the use of the crew.
Abaft the foremast she has a house 42 feet long by 24 wide, and 6 high, which contains spacious accommodations for the crew, and other apartments for a galley, store rooms, etc. The upper part of the house is ornamented with panels, which look neatly.
Her cabins are under a half poop deck, the height of the main rail, and have a descent of three feet below the main deck. Along the sides, and round the stern, the poop is protected by an open rail, supported on turned stanchions. On this deck she is steered, and she has a patent steering apparatus, embracing the latest improvements. the deck itself is 44 feet long, and in its front, amidships, is a small square house, or portico, to the entrance of the cabins.
The after cabin is 32 feet long by 13 wide, and 6 feet 8 inches high. Its after division is fitted into a spacious state-room with two berths, and is admirably adopted for the accommodation of a family. Before this there is a water closet on each side, then a state-room; before that a recess of 8 feet on each side, and then two state-rooms. The sides of the cabins are splendidly finished with mahogany Gothic panels, enameled pilasters and cornices, and gilded mouldings. It has a large skylight amidships; and every state-room has its deck and side light also. In furniture and other details it will be as neat as that of a first class packet.
The forward cabin contains the captain's state-room, which overlooks the main deck. On the starboard side; it also contains the pantry, and staterooms for the three mates and the steward. It is 12 by 18 feet, and is neatly painted and grained; and lighted the same as that shaft. Her cabins were designed and finished by Mr. Thos. Manson, whose work on board the ship Daniel Webster and other packet ships, has been highly commanded.
Inside the ship is painted pearl color, relieved with white, and outside black, from the water's edge to the rail.
She has patent copper pumps which work with fly wheel and winches,- a patent windlass, with ends which ungear, and two beautiful capstans, made of mahogany and locust, inlaid with brass. She has a cylindrical iron water tank of 45000 gallons capacity, the depth of the ship, secured below the upper deck, abaft the mainmast, and resting upon a massive bed constructed over and alongside of the keelson. The ground tackle, boats and other furniture are of the finest quality, and every way worthy of the ship.
Aloft, she looms like a ship of war. Her masts rake alike, vix. 11/4 inch in the foot. The distance from the stem to the centre of the foremast is 50 feet; thence to the main 67; thence to the mizzen 50 feet; and thence to the sternpost 42 feet. The following are the dimensions of her masts and yards:
The bowsprit is 26 1/2 inches in diameter; 24 feet long, and has 4 1/2 inches stave to the feet ; the jibboom is 16 1/2 inches in diameter, and is 38 feet outside the cap, divided at 18 and 15 feet for the inner and outer jibs, with 5 feet and ; flying jibboom 18 feet outside of the wythe, with 4 feet and ; spanker boom 18 inches in diameter, and 60 feet long, with 2 1/2 feet and ; gaff 44 feet, including 5 feet and ; fore and main spanker ---- gaffs each 25 feet long, with 2 foot ends.
Her fore and mainmasts are fished on each side, in other words, are made masts, and the former is 23 1/2 inches in diameter at the tress-band and the later 33. She has pole topgallant, royal and skysail masts and her topmasts and standing jibboom are of hard pine. The fore and main rigging is 10 inch, fore-stranded, patent rope, wormed and served over the ends up to the landing tracks ; the mizen rigging is 8 inch, the fore and main stays 9 1/2 inch, the top rigging 5 1/2 inch, set up on the ends; the mizentopmast rigging 4 1/2 inch, mizentopmast backstays 7 1/2 inch, fore and maintopgallant backstays and jibboom guys 4 1/2 inch, and the other standing rigging in like proportions. She has chain bob stays, and bowsprit shrouds, martingale stays and guys, and topsail sheets and ties ; patent tresses, and the other iron work now in general use. Her fore and main chainplates are 1 1/2 inch, and all the other ironwork connected with her rigging is of the most substantial kind, and remarkably well furnished. She has boarded tops, like those of a ship of war, and her caps and crosstrees are both neat and strong.
Her spars look majestically. Her taunt masts and square yards, so truly proportioned, "fill the eye" with admiration. A first class frigate, the most sightly ship of war that floats, is not more imposingly beautiful aloft than the Stag Hound; and it is due to Capt. Brewster who rigged her, to say, that he has performed his part of her equipment most faithfully. Her blocks were made by Mr. Thomas J. Shelton, who is well known as one of the best mechanics in New England. Her sails are of cotton duck, 22 inches wide in the cloths ---- and including the studdingsails and staysails, contain 9500 yards. With a jib-topsail, water-sails, middle, royal, and mizentopmast staysails, gafftopsails and ---- sails, not one of which she has, she might spread nearly 11,000 yards. Of course every sailor knows that all those sails can never draw together, still the surface of canvas seems immense, when we call to mind that all these, and even more sails, might be set at the same time upon a ship of 1600 tons. In the light winds of the tropics and Pacific, such a vast surface of canvas will send her along at the rate of 7 or 8 knots, when a common freighting ship would have little more than steerage way. The substance of her masts and yards, however, show that she is sparred for stormy weather as well as light breezes. Her spars were made by Mr. Young, and her sails by Mr. Porter, of East Boston. We have examined several of her heavy sails in the loft and can say that they are well made.
In taking a parting survey of the Stag Hound, we cannot speak too highly of her builder, and all who have participated in her construction and equipment.
Although she is sharp beyond all comparison with other ships, still her floor is carried forward and aft almost to the ends, and presents as true a surface in the water, as ever graced the bottom of any vessel of equal length. That she has a long buoyant floor is evident from her launch displacement. When launched, she drew 10 1/2 feet forward, and 11 feet 6 inches aft, and this, too, including 39 inches depth of keel and shoe ----, clear of the garboards. Those who have not seen her on the stocks imagine, from her sharp appearance on the water, that she must have been in heavy weather; but this impression is erroneous for she is, in fact, very buoyant for her tonnage; and what is more, we believe that she will be a remarkably dry vessel in the worst of weather.
She is, as we have already stated, an original, and in our eye, as perfect in her proportions. Her model must be criticized as an original production, and not as a copy from any class of ships or steamers. We have examined her carefully, both on the stocks and afloat, and are free to confess that there is not a single detail in her hull that we would wish to alter. We think, however, that she is rather too heavily sparred; but many New York captains, who have had much experience in the China trade, say that she is just right aloft.
Mr. D. McKay, of East Boston, designed modeled, draughted and built her; he also draughted her spars, and every other scientific detail about her. She is, therefore, his own production-as much as any ship can be the production of a single mind-and upon him alone, as before remarked, rests the responsibility of her success-always seeming that she will be properly managed at sea. She was designed for speed and it is the opinion of competent judges, that the vessel has yet to be built that will pass her.
However much Mr. McKay and the workmen employed upon her, are entitled to praises, the owners, after all, have to foot the bills. To their taste for adopting the model, the builder is indebted for this opportunity of showing his skill. Nothing more clearly indicates the taste of the mercantile community than its ships. A merchant selects a model and forms a contract to have it built after, and if the contract is fulfilled, here the builder's responsibility ends. The success or failure of a ship, under such circumstances, ought to be attributed to the merchant alone. This system of building is common in all large seaports, so that a builder rarely has an opportunity to show his skill as a designer. As a general rule, therefore, the merchants, not the mechanics, ought to be responsible for the qualities of their ships. Yet in almost every instance where our mechanics have had an opportunity of displaying their skill, the result, as in the case of the Stag Hound, has been satisfactory.
She is owned by Messrs. George B. Upton and Sampson & Tappan, of this city, and is commanded by Capt. Richardson a gentleman of sterling worth as a man, and a sailor of long-tried experience. In a day or two she will proceed to New York, there to finish loading for San Francisco, and thence will sail for China. We invite the New York Mechanics to examine her, for we feel confident that she will bear inspection as well as any vessel that ever graced her waters.
( There are some illegible words that could not be identified in the microfilm Boston Atlas account from the Boston Library and are noted as ---- on the page. )
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The Stag Hound
The Stag Hound was towed to New York by the R. B. Forbes to her loading berth on the East River near Wall Street. She was commanded by Captain Josiah Richardson, said to be a man of sterling qualities who had long been employed by Enoch Train in the North Atlantic packet trade. The sharp appearance of this heavily sparred ship caused quite a commotion with New Yorkers who thought her to be "overhatted," and that heavy weather would drive the ship under. Nothing could be further from the truth, but still, her marine underwriters charged extra premiums on her first voyage as they considered her to be a hazardous risk.
For the most part, New Yorkers were jealous of her, for the Stag Hound had one-upped them all as she was now the largest clipper of the growing fleet. But with the booming freight rates at $1.40 per foot, the Stag Hound quickly filled her holds and the moneys received paid for the cost of the ship before she cleared for her maiden voyage around the Horn to the Golden Gate. The Stag Hound cleared for San Francisco on February 1, 1851, with a crew of 36 able seamen, 6 ordinary seamen, and 4 boys. From the Battery, the Stag Hound rode the ebb tide and the strong westerly winds soon filled her sails as she rode out to Sandy Hook clipping ten knots, where she discharged her pilot. At 3:15 p.m. her crew hoisted her topsail singing heartily away at a chantey:
Down the river hauled a Yankee clipper’
And it’s blow, my bully boys, blow!
She’d a Yankee mate and a Yankee Skipper,
And it’s blow, my bully boys blow!
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho’
For Cal-i-forni-o,
For there’s plenty of gold,
So I’ve been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento.
( * Quoted from "Some Famous Sailing Ships and their Builder, Donald McKay )
Six days out, the Stag Hound encountered a heavy gale and lost her main topmast and all three topgallant masts that came crashing down together. For nine days, she was without her main topsail and her topgallants were not set for twelve days. Still, she crossed the equator in a few hours less than 21 days, quite remarkable time. The Stag Hound made it around the Horn and put into Valparaiso under jury rig in 66 days on April 8, 1851.
While in that port, Captain Richardson posted a letter to her owners:
Gentlemen:-
Your ship the Stag Hound anchored in this port this day after a passage of sixty-five days, the shortest but one ever made here; and if we had not lost maintopmast and all three topgallantmasts February 6, our passage doubtless would have been the shortest ever made. . . . The ship is yet to be built to beat Stag Hound. Nothing that we have fallen in with as yet could hold her play. I am in love with the ship; a better sea boat, or better working ship, or drier, I never sailed in.
The Stag Hound cleared Valparaiso on the evening of April 13th for a 42-day passage to San Francisco. The clipper experienced light winds and calms all the way and sailed through the Golden Gate on May 25th after a journey of 108 days at sea, excellent time considering her earlier misfortunes in the Atlantic. Her best day’s run was 358 nautical miles.
The Stag Hound sailed from San Francisco on June 26th for Manila, and then on to Canton, arriving there on September 26th, where she loaded a cargo of tea for her owners.
The Stag Hound sailed from Canton on October 9th and cleared Sunda Straits on October 31st. Twenty-six days later, she rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived back in New York after a 94-day passage from Canton. The Stag Hound’s cargo of tea was sold at auction in New York. After the final computations were made, it was deduced that over the course of the 10-month, 123-day round-the-world voyage, that the ship had paid for itself and made a profit of over $80,000, which was divided among her owners. Captain Richardson left the Stag Hound at New York, turning her over to Captain C.F.W. Behm, and went on to his next command aboard the Staffordshire, another McKay ship, and took her on her maiden voyage around the Horn.
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