Description of the Largest Ship in the World, the New Clipper Great Republic, of Boston - Designed, Built and Owned by Donald McKay, and Commanded by Capt. L. McKay, With; Illustrated Designs of Her Construction #232800

Among the many wonderful results which have followed the discovery of gold in California, none is more wonderful than the magnificent fleet of clippers which has been built within a few years, to perform the carrying trade of the new State. Rapidly as the population of California increased, it hardly kept pace with the means to furnish supplies, notwithstanding the length and rugged nature of the seas over which they had to be carried. Month after month, ships surpassing in beauty and strength, all that the world had before produced, were built and equipped by private enterprise, to form the means of communication with the new land of promise. Our most eminent shipbuilders and most enterprising merchants vied with one another to lead in the great race round the Horn.