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Rh but her reduced rig required only one half the number of hands to handle it—fifty able seamen and fifteen ordinary seamen and boys. It was for this purpose that her sail plan had been cut down, as freights were beginning to slacken and the tide of economy was setting in. It is to be regretted that she could not have made a few voyages under her original rig, as her performance in strong winds under the reduced rig left little room for doubt that she would have proved, what Mr. McKay intended her to be, the swiftest sailing ship ever built.

The Great Republic sailed on her first voyage, February 21, 1855, commanded by Captain Limeburner, and made the run from Sandy Hook to Land's End in thirteen days. On her arrival at London, three days later, she was obliged to lie in the Thames, as no dock was large enough to take her. She was subsequently chartered by the French Government as a troop ship during the Crimean War, and carried 1600 British soldiers from Liverpool to Marseilles. During the Civil War, she was chartered by the United States Government as a troop ship, and was one of the transports in Butler's expedition to Ship Island.

The burning of the Great Republic was a severe blow to Donald McKay, from which he never fully recovered, but he soon began to bring out Australian clippers, some of which proved quite as famous as the ships he had previously constructed.

The well-known packet ship Dreadnought also came out in 1853. She was built by Currier & Townsend at Newburyport, and was 1413 tons register; length 210 feet, breadth 40 feet, depth 26