A portrait of the tea clipper ‘Wild Deer’ shown in full sail and broadside-on. Her figurehead of Diana is clearly visible. She was built in Charles Connell’s Shipyard at Glasgow, on the Clyde, for William Walker of London and launched in 1863. She was the first of Charles Connell's composite ships, with a teak bottom and elm planking. She was at first under the command of Captain George Cobb, a well-known racing skipper in the China Tea trade. On her maiden voyage she lost her foremast in the North Atlantic and had to put into Lisbon to refit. In her early years as a tea clipper the ‘Wild Deer’ carried 10 small guns on gun carriages mounted on her decks. In 1866, she was sold to the Albion Shipping Company and in 1871 was used for the New Zealand immigrant trade. She was a popular and comfortable immigrant ship and made ten successful voyages there. At the commencement of her 11th voyage in 1883 she ran aground on the coast of Ireland and sank, but no passengers or crew were lost.