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142 dignity, who usually wore kid gloves when he came on deck and seldom gave his orders to any one but the officer of the watch. He had the reputation of being an Al seaman and navigator.

The White Squall was another handsome clipper, very similar in construction and design to the Samuel Russell and Oriental from the same yard. Although but little more than eleven hundred tons register, this ship cost when ready for sea with one year's stores and provisions on board the sum of $90,000, and her freight from New York to San Francisco on her first voyage amounted to $70,000. She was commanded by Captain Lockwood, and her measurements were: length 190 feet, breadth 35 feet 6 inches, and depth 21 feet.

The Stag-Hound, at the time of her launch was the largest merchant ship ever built, though during the nine years that the Cunard Company had been running mail steamers across the Atlantic, the tonnage of American packet ships had steadily increased. In 1846, as we have seen, Donald McKay had built the New World of 1404 tons, and in 1849 William H. Webb launched the Albert Gallatin of 1435 tons, so that the Stag-Hound, 1535 tons, was not a very much larger vessel; but she was of a decidedly different design, having less beam and seventeen feet more length than either of these packets. She attracted much attention and many persons came to see her while she was building. A throng estimated at from twelve to fifteen thousand gathered about the shipyard at noon on December 7, 1850, to witness her launch. The weather was bitterly cold, with drift ice in the harbor and snow: