Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ The figures representing the vessels are so marked as to show whether the prevailing direction of the wind be adverse or fair.
570. When one looks seaward from the shore, and sees a ship disappear in the horizon as she gains an offing on a voyage to India, or the Antipodes perhaps, the common idea is that she is bound over a trackless waste, and the chances of another ship, sailing with the same destination the next day, or the next week, coming up and speaking with her on the “pathless ocean,” would, to most minds, seem slender indeed. ”

“ On the 30th of December the three ships crossed the parallel of 35° south, the Flying Fish recognizing the Pigeon; the Pigeon saw only a “clipper ship,” for she could not conceive how the ship in sight could possibly be the Flying Fish, as that vessel was not to leave New York for some three weeks after she did; the Gilpin was only thirty or forty miles off at the same time. The race was now wing and wing, and had become exciting. With fair winds and an open sea, the competitors had now a clear stretch to the equator of two thousand five hundred miles before them. ”

“ Could she have imagined that, in consequence of this difference of forty miles in the crossing of the equator, and of the two hours’ time behind her competitor, she would fall into a streak of wind which would enable the Flying Fish to lead her into port one whole week? Certainly it was nothing but what sailors call “a streak of ill luck” that could have made such a difference. But by this time “John Gilpin” had got his mettle up again. He crossed the line in 11600 — exactly two days after the other two — and made the glorious run of fifteen days thence to the pilot grounds of San Francisco. ”

“ Twenty-five days after that, the Trade Wind clipper came along, crossed in 1120, and had a passage of sixteen days thence into San Francisco. The Flying Fish beat: she made the passage in 92 days and 4 hours from port to anchor; the Gilpin in 93 days and 20 hours from port to pilot; the Wild Pigeon had 118.
The Trade Wind followed, with 102 days, having taken fire, and burned for eight hours on the way. The result of this race may be taken as an illustration as to how well navigators are now brought to understand the winds and the currents of the sea. ”

“ Each one had evidently studied them attentively; and each one was resolved to make the most of them, and do his best. All ran against time; but the “John Gilpin” and the “Flying Fish” for the whole course, and the “Wild Pigeon” for part of it, ran neck and neck, the one against the other, and each against all. It was a sweepstake with these ships around Cape Horn and through both hemispheres.
576. Wild Pigeon led the other two out of New York, the one by seventeen, the other by twenty days. But luck and chances of the winds seem to have been against her from the start. ”

“ The Flying Fish led the way, the Wild Pigeon pressing her hard, and both dropping the Gilpin quite rapidly, who was edging off to the westward. The two foremost reached the equator on the 13th of January, the Flying Fish leading just twenty-five miles in latitude, and crossing in the Pigeon forty miles farther to the east. ”

“ I had computed the detour which these vessels would have to make, on account of adverse winds, between New York and their place of crossing the equator. The whole distance, including detour to be sailed to reach this rossing at that season of the year, was, according to calculation, 4115 miles. The “Gilpin” and the “Hazard” only kept an account of the distance actually sailed; the former reaching the equator after sailing 4099 miles, the latter, 4077 ”