The Stornoway was commanded by Captain Richard Robinson, and on her first voyage she made the passage from the Downs to Java Head in 80 days, to Hongkong in 102 days, and from Hongkong to London in 103 days. These were at that time the quickest passages between these ports that had ever been made by a British vessel.
In 1851 Alexander Hall & Co. built the China tea-clipper Chrysolite, of 471 tons, for Taylor & Potter of Liverpool; length 149 feet 3 inches, breadth 29 feet, depth 17 feet. As will be seen this vessel approached more nearly the proportions of the Race Horse, having 8 feet 5 inches less length than the Stornoway, with 3 feet 4 inches more breadth, and 8 inches less depth. She made her first passage from Liverpool to Canton, under the command of Captain Anthony Enright, in 102 days, and came home in 104 days. She also made the
(see Appendix iv.,) gave the breadth measurement a preponderating influence upon the result, and as taxation, port, and light dues, etc., were based upon the registered tonnage of a vessel, there was economy in decreasing the breadth of a vessel at the expense of the other dimensions. Ship-builders and owners in England showed a much greater tendency to profit by this feature of the law than did those in the United States, where substantially the same system was in force. In this country some very narrow vessels were built for the New Orleans and West India trade, in the period 1820-1845, but it was found that the saving in taxation did not pay for using such an undesirable type of vessels, so they were given up. As a rule, American owners and builders preferred to build vessels of a type which they regarded as the best for speed and for the trade in which they were engaged, without regard for the tonnage laws.
