Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/443

 entirely from the China trade. Such are the effects of wholesome competition.

Perhaps no merchant ocean-going ships of any country or of any age have equalled, certainly none have ever surpassed, the sailing clippers launched from the yards of Great Britain between 1860 and 1872, vessels far superior to those I have already named, including the Falcon, the ''Fiery Cross, Undine, Lahloo, Leander, the Isles of the South, Min, Kelso, Serica, Taeping, Ariel, Titania'', Spindrift, Sir Lancelot, and Thermopylæ. As the Thermopylæ and the Sir Lancelot are the fastest sailing ships that ever traversed the ocean, I have given a representation of the former under full sail at page 416, and the following drawing to scale of her midship section may interest my nautical readers.