In addition to the speed of McKay’s clipper ship, one of the reasons for their fast voyages was Eleanor’s use of an early form of voyage routing. She was among the first to use the route around Patagonia recommended in Lt. Matthew Maury’s charts of winds and currents, published from 1847 until 1861, and his “Sailing Directions
The Flying Cloud set the record New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn that stood for over 100 years.