Even the Government viewed the loss of trade with concern and sent admiralty draftsmen to copy the lines of the Oriental and Challenge while they were in drydock.
British clippers were soon afloat, somewhat different in model from the Yankee ships, but very fast and able, and racing them in the tea trade until the Civil War.

With them it was often nip and tuck, as in the contest between the English Lord of the Isles and the American clipper bark Maury in 1856.

The prize was a premium of one pound per ton for the first ship to reach London with tea of the new crop.

The Lord of the Isles finished loading and sailed four days ahead of the Maury, and after thirteen thousand miles of ocean they passed Gravesend within ten minutes of each other.

The British skipper, having the smartest tug and getting his ship first into dock, won the honors.