The clipper ships were fast, it is true, built for the gold rush. As in this case, the survivors were cut down because they were too fragile. They were not practical for general trade because they required too large a crew and too much maintenance and didn't have enough cargo capacity. Basically they were oversize yachts. Most were scrapped after only a few years and others were used mainly for special runs.
Average late 19th century German freighters hauled over 5 times the cargo with about 1/2 the crew and were still not that far behind in speed (though their voyages averaged much longer distance). The record for a Cape Horn passage (40 south to 40 south upwind) was set by a freight hauler at 4-1/2 days (average for British and American ships was about 2 weeks). The logs were examined carefully by other German captains because it was taking them 5 to 6 days on average.
The safety record was vastly better than either the British or American shipping, with ships lost very seldom and crews lost almost never. Crews were well paid and well fed. The objective of American captains was generally to run out of food completely several days before arrival at the destination.
The German advantages were gained by great size, all steel construction and winching systems by which 2 boys could tack a freighter in just a few minutes - and a 100 year statistical study of where the strongest winds could be found at various times in the year, because that's the winds these ships were built for.