The full-rigged ship Hurricane at sea

Designed and built on the Clyde by Alexander Stephens, the Glasgow Herald enthusiastically described Hurricane as she neared completion in April 1853 as "the largest iron sailing ship perhaps ever built." Registered at 1,198 tons and measuring 215 feet in length with a 30½ foot beam, she was certainly one of the finest full-riggers of her day and was ordered in the autumn of 1852 when the gold rush to Australia was in full flood. Owned by the Clyde & Australian Shipping Company and managed by the Glasgow firm of Potter, Wilson, she sailed from Glasgow on her maiden voyage under Captain Tait and did the run to Melbourne in 87 days, returning home in only 83 days with 54,000 ounces of gold in her strong-room. A highly successful ship from the start, she was sold to London owners in July 1855 who gave her an auxiliary engine thus dating this painting prior to that year. Still running to Australia out of Liverpool in the late 1860s, she was reported lost in 1870.