One of Donald McKay's first large clipper ships, the "experts" claimed that the Sovereign of the Seas was too big to be profitable, but they were proven wrong. Chartered by the Black Ball Line in 1853, she sailed from Liverpool to Australia loaded with cargo and passengers, and returned loaded with mail and gold dust.

In the late 1850's a German firm bought her for service to the Far East. On a passage to China, she struck the Pyramid Shoal in the Molucca Straits and became a total loss. McKay later built a second, smaller ship and gave it the same name, but that ship was also lost due to fire in 1861.

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