On this day in 1853, the Great Republic burned to the waterline in New York harbor the day before she was to set sail on her maiden voyage. Built by Donald McKay, the man most closely identified with the famous clipper ships of the mid-nineteenth century, the Great Republic was the largest wooden merchant sailing vessel ever built in the U.S. Clipper ships are thought by many to be the most beautiful of all sailing vessels; they were also the fastest, able to reach speeds of 20 knots. The clipper ship era passed quickly, like the ships themselves, but not before the best of McKay's vessels, built at his shipyard in East Boston, had set speed records that have never been broken.