The Flying Cloud was an American-built clipper ship originally launched in 1851 for Enoch Train’s White Diamond Line, a packet service that ran between Boston and Liverpool. However, before it was completed, the ship was purchased by the transatlantic shipping company Grinnell, Minturn & Co. The Flying Cloud was built for speed and had no problem showing it. In the days before the Panama Canal, ships had to go around Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, to travel from one coast of the United States to the other. It often took around 200 days to travel the 16,000 nautical miles from New York to San Francisco. About six weeks after she was launched, the Flying Cloud made that voyage in 89 days and 21 hours, setting a world record. Three years later, the Flying Cloud made the same voyage in 89 days and 8 hours, setting a world record that would remain unbeaten until 1989. While the speed records are astonishing by themselves, what made the Flying Cloud even more remarkable was its crew. The ship was primarily run by a husband-wife duo, with Josiah Perkins Creesy as captain and Eleanor Creesy as navigator. This was especially noteworthy in a time when women rarely served aboard shipping vessels in any capacity.