Built and launched at Boston on October 23, 1853, ROMANCE OF THE SEAS was one of Donald McKay’s famous extreme clippers with the sharpest bow of any clipper built to that date. Her name, given to her it is claimed by Donald McKay’s wife, reflected the “Romantic” writers of the period and “ROMANCE” had “Scott” written on one side of her bow and “Cooper” on the other. The newspapers described her departure as leaving at “high water on the 9th at 6:28 AM, sunrise at 7:18, winds S.W. to W.” So just after dawn with the wind blowing down the length of Long Wharf, the ROMANCE had ideal tide and wind to simply sail away from the wharf and out into the bay, unassisted by any tug.
Knowing that she was shipping out on the same time, the new crack clipper, “DAVID BROWN” also left New York. This created considerable betting in the shipping circles. Both vessels were pushed to their limits and although they were not in sight of each other, they raced neck in neck towards San Francisco. The ROMANCE sailed into Frisco on March 23, 1854 - 96 days and 18 hours after leaving Boston. ROMANCE beat BROWN whose time was 99 days. The race did not end there; ROMANCE and BROWN departed Frisco in company bound for Hong Kong with ROMANCE entering Hong Kong only 1 hour ahead of DAVID BROWN after thousands of miles of sailing.
The ROMANCE remained in the China Trade until she “went missing” in the Pacific in 1863 while bound from Hong Kong to San Francisco
Image Size: 23” x 30” ; unf...$1000.00
