Designed and built by Donald McKay, Sovereign of the Seas was registered at 2,242 tons when launched in 1852 and soon acquired a reputation for record-breaking speeds, on one famous occasion achieving 411 miles in a 24-hour period. So confident was the Black Ball Line in her reliability that they chartered her for the Australia run, advertising her with the singular statement Freight seven pounds a ton for Melbourne, forty shillings a ton to be returned if 'Sovereign' does not make a faster passage than any steamer on the berth -- which she did. Upon her return, she was sold to J.C. Godeffroy & Son and was sailing under their flag enroute to China in 1859 when she ran aground on Pyramid Shoal and became a total loss, her crew rescued by the American ship Eloisa.