Lightning was a clipper ship, one of the last really large clippers to be built in the United States. She was built by Donald McKay for James Baines of the Black Ball Line, Liverpool, for the Australia trade.
"Clipper Ship Lightning"
Lightning on fire
Emigrant fleet (Kent, Lightning, White Star, Malabar) in Hobson's bay by D.O. Robertson
Donald McKay was a British North America-born American designer and builder of sailing ships, famed for his record-setting extreme clippers.
Donald McKay
Sovereign of the Seas (1852)