Black Ball captains were celebrated for their daring navigation and McDonald was no exception in this respect. His passengers declared that the _James Baines_ was nearly ashore three times whilst tacking off the coast of Ireland under a heavy press of sail, and that when McDonald put her round off the Mizenhead the rocks were so close that a stone could have been thrown ashore from her decks. It was a lee shore, and if she had missed stays she must have been lost. But as McDonald said, when remonstrated with for taking such risks, it was a case of “we have to make a good passage.”
The _Donald Mackay_, last of the famous Mackay quartette, was for many years the largest sailing ship in the world, her measurements being:—
Registered tonnage 2408 tons. Gross 2486 „ Net 1616 „ Length of keel 257.9 feet. Length between perpendiculars 266 „ Breadth 46.3 „ Depth 29.5 „ Dead rise at half-floor 18 inches. Mainyard 100 feet. Sail area 17,000 yds.
A novelty in her sail plan was Forbes’ patent double topsail yards. These came out before Howe’s, and differed from them in having the topmasts fidded abaft the lower masts.
_Donald Mackay_ was said to have the heaviest mainmast out of Liverpool. It was a built mast of pitch-pine, heavily banded with iron, weighing close on 20 tons. She was, of course, a three-decker; and as a figure-head she had a Highlander dressed in the tartan of the Mackays. In design she took after the _Champion of the Seas_, being not so sharp-ended as the _Lightning_ or _James Baines_. Captain Warner left the _Sovereign of the Seas_ to take her, and superintended her fitting out.
Leaving Boston on 21st February, 1855, she made Cape Clear only 12 days out. On 27th February her log records:—“First part a strong gale from N.W.; middle part blowing a hurricane from W.N.W., ship scudding under topsails and foresail at the rate of 18 knots; latter part still blowing from W.N.W. with heavy hail squalls and very high sea running.”
Under these conditions she made a run of 421 miles in the 24 hours. She made the Fastnet Rock on 6th March, distant one mile, it blowing a gale from S.E. to E.N.E., her run for the day being 299 miles. But in the Channel her passage was spoilt by strong easterly winds, and she did not receive her pilot off Point Lynas until Saturday, the 10th.