This letter relates to the record passage of the clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas from Honolulu to New York, set in the spring of 1853, "Praying reference to the enclosure of our Mr. French, which will apprize you of the safe arrival of the Sovereign of the Seas at this port, after a short passage of 82 days from Honolulu, we beg to own to day receipt of your much estd. favour of the 15th and 31st of March whose interesting contents have had our attentive perusal. The trade to California [being at] present rather dull, we have determined to send the Sovereign to Liverpool for which port we trust to receive a full cargo...." Built by Donald McKay and launched in Boston in June 1852, the 2400-ton Clipper Ship Sovereign of the Seas, under the ownership of Wall Street ship brokers, Funch & Meincke, sailed on her maiden voyage from New York, bound for Gold Rush California, on August 4. Despite being partly dismasted in a gale off Valparaiso, she arrived in San Francisco on November 15. She then sailed for Honolulu. On her return voyage, leaving Hawaii on February 12, 1853, carrying 8000 barrels of whale oil, she reached New York on May 9 - a record passage of just 82 days - the very voyage recorded in this letter, which was sent by her owners to S. Griffiths Morgan, a New Bedford businessman with large California property holdings (later one of the financial angels of Booker T. Washington). The vessel then sailed - again as noted in this letter - for Liverpool, breaking another speed record by crossing the Atlantic in 13 days. Subsequently chartered by a Liverpool firm for the Australian trade, in 1854, she set the world record for the fastest speed ever recorded for a sailing ship, the first vessel to travel more than 400 miles in 24 hours. A rare letter of California and nautical history.