her record passage of 89 days from Foo-chow to London and her twenty-four hours' run of 354 miles would seem to justify, though there were probably very slight differences in speed between any of these vessels under similar conditions of wind and weather.
The race of 1870 from Foo-chow to London was won by the Lahloo in 97 days, the other vessels being: the Windhover, 100 days; Sir Launcelot, 102 days Leander, 103 days; Thermopylæ, 106 days. In 1871 the Titania won in 93 days; the Lahloo, 111 days, from Foo-chow to London; and from Shanghai to London the Thermopylæ was 106 days; Cutty Sark, 110 days, and Forward Ho, 118 days. This was about the last of the tea clipper racing, for the combined competition of steam and the Suez Canal proved too powerful for sail. No more tea clippers were built after 1869; by degrees these beautiful vessels were driven into other trades; and so the Clipper Ship Era drifted into history.
Great Britain had regained her empire upon the sea, and few British ship-owners could be found who any longer doubted the wisdom of Free Trade. Through the irony of fate, Duncan Dunbar, who had been one of the most vehement opponents of the repeal of the Navigation Laws, became under the new conditions, the largest ship-owner and one of the wealthiest in the United Kingdom, leaving at his death an estate of £1,500,000.
In comparing the speed of the British tea clippers with that of American clipper ships, a good deal depends on what is meant by speed. In ordinary weather at sea, when great power to carry sail is
