American rock elm was largely used. The frames were in three sections with scarfed joints, bolted together, the scantlings being reduced towards the top, so as to lower the centre of gravity. Inside the frames there were at various heights longitudinal timbers, to add to the fore-and-aft strength. The top sides were of greenheart, the beams of oak or greenheart, with wrought-iron knees; the height between the beams was made to admit of two hogsheads of sugar being placed in the hold. There were side-stringers, sometimes 10 in. thick, between the floor and the beams, which were half-checked into the stringers. On the top of the beams there were deck-stringers. There was a most effective transverse and longitudinal binding, brass bolts being extended right through the knee, stringer, frame, and skin of the ship. The decks were of yellow or Dantzig white pine. An 800 or 1000-ton West Indiaman occupied about nine months in construction. The last wooden ship built in Greenock was the _Canadian_, completed by the Scotts in 1859.[14]
The highest conception of the iron sailing ship, as built by the firm, was probably embodied in the _Lord of the Isles_, completed in 1856. She had a length between perpendiculars of 185 ft., a breadth of 29 ft.--the proportion being thus 6.4 of length to 1 of beam--with a depth of hold of 18 ft. Her registered tonnage was 691 tons, and her builders' measurement 770 tons. Although a fine-ended ship she carried a large cargo on board, and made her first trip to Sydney in seventy days, which had not then been surpassed.[15] She made the passage from Shanghai to London in eighty-seven days, with 1030 tons of tea on board. In one trip she averaged 320 nautical miles for five consecutive days. When engaged in the celebrated race for the delivery of the season's teas from Foo-chow-foo to London, in 1856, the _Lord of the Isles_ beat two of the fastest American clippers, of almost twice her tonnage. She "delivered her cargo without one spot of damage, and thus British ships regained their ascendency in the trade which their American rivals had far too long monopolised."[16] From that time the British sailing ships gradually gained a complete superiority over the American vessels, and carried all before them, until they in turn were supplanted by the British steamship. From time to time an occasional sailing ship was constructed of steel; the latest, the _Archibald Russell_, is illustrated. Built for Messrs. John Hardie and Company, this vessel has a length, between perpendiculars, of 278 ft., a beam of 43 ft., and a depth, moulded, of 26 ft., and carries 3930 tons of deadweight cargo on a draught of 21 ft. 7-1/2 in. But less than 1 per cent. of ships now constructed depend upon the unbought but uncertain winds, and then only for special trades. On regular routes the steamer is now almost paramount, and it was, therefore, appropriate in the highest degree that the first vessels to steam regularly to China, _viâ_ the Cape, should, like the _Lord of the Isles_, be built by the Scotts; but that belongs to another story.