“The captain’s cabin and sleeping room are on the starboard side and communicate with the wheelhouse on deck, so that it will not be necessary for him to enter the cabin set apart for female passengers. Besides these the cabin contains 11 spacious staterooms, a bathroom and other useful apartments.
“The dining saloon is 35 feet long by 15 feet wide; the entrance to the deck from the saloon is 2½ feet wide and extends across the house, with a door on each side, and opposite the midship door of the saloon is the pantry, which is spacious and fitted up in superior style. In the front of the saloon house are the staterooms of the first and second officers, and the windows of these rooms are of stained glass and have the ship’s name in them. The staircase in the after part of the saloon leads to the main deck, where are the gentlemen’s sleeping apartments, 24 in all, each stateroom having two berths. The deck before the gentlemen’s sleeping cabin has three large ports for cargo opposite the hatchways, one on each side, and square ports suitable for staterooms along the sides. The lower decks are ventilated amidships with trunk skylights which pass through the house forward as well as the cabin and saloon aft. The height between each of the decks is 7½ feet. The ascent from the quarter-deck to the poop consists of two staircases, built into the front of the poop. She is very heavily sparred and will spread about 13,000 yards of canvas in a single suit of sails. Her mastheads and yards are black; the lower masts, from the truss bands to the fiferails, are bright and varnished, their hoops white and the tops and down to the truss band are also white. She has iron caps and is rigged in nearly the same style as the _Champion of the Seas_. Her bulwarks and houses are painted white and her waterways blue, and in this style she is also painted below.”
Captain McDonald left the _Marco Polo_ in order to take charge of the _James Baines_. She sailed from Boston on 12th September, 1854, and the following is the log of her record run across the Atlantic:—
Sept. 12—At noon parted with steam boat and pilot. Wind, S.W., light.
13—Lat. 42° 10′ N., Long. 66° 33′ W. Distance 225 miles. Light airs and calms, increasing in the evening to brisk winds and clear weather.