Champion of the Seas

Champion of the Seas was "fuller aft than forward", and her strength of construction was an improvement over the Lightning, which Mackay had built the previous year. The frame was white oak, diagonally cross-braced with iron, planking and ceiling of hard pine, square fastened throughout. She had 3 decks. Champion of the Seas's figurehead was the full figure of a sailor "with his hat in his right hand, and left hand extended ... It was certainly a most striking figurehead, the tall square-built mariner, with dark curly hair and bronze clean-shaven face." Her semi-elliptical stern was ornamented with the coat of arms of Australia. She was painted black on the outside, white on the inside, with blue waterways: the colors of the Black Ball Line. == History ==

James Baines ordered Champion of the Seas from Donald McKay of East Boston for the Black Ball Line of Liverpool. She was similar in appearance to McKay's other clippers, Lightning and James Baines, but set no sails above the royals. She set the record for the longest day's run, on 10–11 December 1854 on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne. From her launching to 1868, Champion served in the passenger trade. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the British government chartered the three Black Ball clippers to carry troops to Calcutta. Before embarking about 1,000 troops, she and James Baines were reviewed by Queen Victoria. In 1868 she entered the general shipping trade. She remained in this trade until 3 January 1877 when she was abandoned, leaking badly, with a load of guano off Cape Horn. == In popular culture ==

Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) had a practice of naming its airliners "Clippers", as an allusion to the clipper ships of earlier times. Between 1984 and 1991, a Pan Am Boeing 747-121 airliner (MSN 19641 / tail number N734PA) was named Clipper Champion of the Seas in accordance with this practice. The airliner, which had been delivered to Pan Am in 1969, had previously been named Clipper Flying Cloud. ==See also==