The City of York was a 1,194 ton iron ship which sank after hitting a reef off Rottnest Island in the last few kilometres of its voyage from San Francisco to Fremantle, Western Australia in 1899. The three masted, 68 metre (223 feet) long, iron hulled ship was built in 1869 by Glasgow shipbuilders J. Elder and Company. The British owners were the 'Ship City of York Company'. It had only just been beaten by the famous Cutty Sark in the 1885 Great Race, a race from China to London in which large profits were earned by the ship to arrive with the first tea of the year.