120 days from New York, and the following day Sea Witch arrived after a 97-day passage, knocking an additional 12 days off the record. The performance of Sea Witch was particularly astonishing because she had rounded Cape Horn during the Antarctic midwinter. "The remaining ships arrived in the following order: Memnon, 123 days, Celestial, 104 days, Race Horse, 109 days from Boston, and Mandarin, 126 days from New York-- all 'exceptionally fine passages,' average passages of the time being 159 days." 1852 Challenge to British Clippers for a Race Around the Horn "On January 3, 1852, the Illustrated London News ... published a portrait of the Chrysolite accompanying an article in which it was stated that both the Chrysolite and the Stornoway had beaten the Surprise, and that the Chrysolite had completely beaten the Memnon during a race in the Gaspar Straits. The article caused a good deal of interest in the United States, and it caused the formation by a number of high-spirited young merchants and ship-owners at Boston of a society called the "American Navigation Club", which consisted of Daniel C. Bacon, President Thomas H. Perkins, John P. Cushing, William H. Boardman, John M. Forbes, Warren Delano, and Edward King. In due time they issued the following challenge ... 'The American Navigation Club challenges the ship builders of Great Britain to a ship-race, with cargo on board, to a port in China and back. One ship to be entered by each party, and to be named within a week of the start ... The stakes to be L10,00 a side ...' However, the challenge was not accepted." Loss of the ship The Memnon was one of fifteen American ships that sailed from China to London and Liverpool with cargoes of tea in 1851, of which four were clippers: Memnon, Surprise, Oriental and White Squall. Memnon left Whampoa August 16, 1851, and was lost in the Gaspar Strait, on September 14 or 16, near the Alceste Rock. Charles Burr Todd cites a date of 1854 for the sinking, "After sailing the sea for twelve years was lost in 1854 with a cargo of 2,000,000 pounds of tea for London, for which she was to have had $70,000 freight." In his Journal of Voyages to China and their Return 1851-1853, Henry Blane described the circumstances of Memnon'''s loss: “At sunrise the faint outlines of Gaspar Island could be seen and