AMERICAN COMPETITION WITH GREAT BRITAIN IN THE CHINA TRADE
The California clippers, after discharging their cargoes at San
Francisco, either returned in ballast round Cape Horn, or continued
their voyages across the Pacific and loaded cargoes at Asiatic ports for
the United States or Great Britain.
Some of the ships which sailed to China from San Francisco, raced across
the Pacific in ballast, touching at the Sandwich Islands only long
enough to back the main yard off Diamond Head and send the mails ashore
with perhaps a missionary or two. In those days the Kanaka maidens used
to swim off alongside the ships, and they were probably the nearest
approach to mermaids that has ever been known in real life. The
_Stag-Hound_ made the passage from San Francisco to Honolulu in 9, and
the _Flying Cloud_ and _Surprise_ in 12 days each. The _Flying Cloud_
sailed 374 miles in twenty-four hours, the day after leaving San
Francisco, with a fresh whole-sail breeze and smooth sea, under
sky-sails and royal studdingsails. The _Southern Cross_ made the passage
from San Francisco to Hong-kong in 32, and the _Game-Cock_ in 35 days,
the run of the _Game-Cock_ from Honolulu to Hong-kong in 19 days being
most remarkable. When these and other fast American vessels loaded again
in China for English ports, they, of course, added to the competition
from which British ships were already suffering.
We have seen how the _Oriental_ brought a cargo of tea from China to
England in 1850, and what interest her appearance excited in London. She
was soon followed by the _Surprise_, _White Squall_, _Sea Serpent_,
_Nightingale_, _Argonaut_, _Challenge_, and other clipper ships built
for the California trade. These American clippers received from £6 to
£6, 10s freight per ton of forty cubic feet, with immediate despatch,
while British ships were loading slowly at £3, 10s per ton of fifty
cubic feet. The American ships made fine passages and delivered their
teas in excellent condition; but what especially appealed to the Briton
was the fact that they had cleared more than their original cost and
running expenses on this, their first voyage.
An able English writer,[7] referring to the American clippers engaged in
the China tea-trade at this period, remarks: “This new competition
proved for a time most disastrous to English shipping, which was soon
driven out of favor by the lofty spars, smart, rakish-looking hulls, and
famed speed of the American ships, and caused the tea-trade of the
London markets to pass almost out of the hands of the English
ship-owner. British vessels well manned and well found are known to have
lain in the harbor of Foo-chow for weeks together, waiting for a cargo,
and seeing American clippers coming in, loading, and sailing immediately
with full cargoes, at a higher freight than they could command.
“This soon became a matter of serious moment, and the arrival of these
vessels in the Thames caused great excitement, and aroused no small
amount of curiosity and criticism. Even the attention of the Government
became attracted towards them, and draughtsmen were sent from the
Admiralty to take off the lines of two of the most famous--the
_Challenge_ and the _Oriental_--when they were in Messrs. Green’s
drydock.”
This state of affairs could not, of course, continue without further
arousing British ship-owners and builders to the danger of their
position. Here was not one vessel, but a fleet of American clippers
bringing cargoes from China at double the rates of freight that British
ships could command, and unless some measures were adopted to check this
invasion no one could predict where it might end. That British merchants
paid so liberally to get their teas to a home market was certainly not
because they cherished any special affection for American ships or their
owners. They would have been quite as willing to pay British clippers
the same freights, had there been any such to receive them, or even
Chinese junks, provided the service could have been performed by them as
quickly and as well. So we find the British ship-owners and builders of
that period forced to exert their finest skill and most ardent energy.
The firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of London and China, were the
owners of the first clipper ship built in Great Britain. This vessel was
the _Stornoway_, 506 tons, launched from the yard of Alexander Hall &
Co., at Aberdeen, toward the close of 1850 for the China trade. It will
be recalled that this firm had built the clipper schooner _Torrington_,
for the same owners, four years before. The new ship was named for
Stornoway Castle, Lewis, one of the Hebrides Isles, which was then owned
by Sir James Matheson, and to which he retired after his long and
successful career as ship-owner and merchant in the China trade.
It cannot be said that the _Stornoway_ was a copy of any American model,
as a comparison of dimensions will clearly show. Comparing her
measurements with those of the American clipper, barque _Race Horse_, of
512 tons register, built by Samuel Hall at East Boston in the same year,
we find:
Length Breadth Depth
_Stornoway_ 157 ft. 8 in. 25 ft. 8 in. 17 ft. 8 in.
_Race Horse_ 125 ft. 30 ft. 16 ft.
Thus the _Stornoway_, while she exceeded the _Race Horse_ by 32 feet 8
inches in length and by 1 foot 8 inches in depth, yet had 4 feet 4
inches less breadth; and here began a contest, which extended over so
many years, of breadth against length and depth. There can be no doubt
that the _Stornoway_ with more beam and the _Race Horse_ with more
length and depth, would have been faster, but at the same time
considerably larger vessels.[8]
[Illustration: The “Stornoway”]
The _Stornoway_ was commanded by Captain Richard Robinson, and on her
first voyage she made the passage from the Downs to Java Head in 80
days, to Hong-kong in 102 days, and from Hong-kong to London in 103
days. These were at that time the quickest passages between these ports
that had ever been made by a British vessel.
In 1851 Alexander Hall & Co. built the China tea-clipper _Chrysolite_,
of 471 tons, for Taylor & Potter of Liverpool; length 149 feet 3 inches,
breadth 29 feet, depth 17 feet. As will be seen this vessel approached
more nearly the proportions of the _Race Horse_, having 8 feet 5 inches
less length than the _Stornoway_, with 3 feet 4 inches more breadth, and
8 inches less depth. She made her first passage from Liverpool to
Canton, under the command of Captain Anthony Enright, in 102 days, and
came home in 104 days. She also made the passage from Liverpool to Java
Head in 80 days, her best day’s run being 320 miles.
The very keen rivalry between the British and American clipper ships
engaged in the China trade at this time, seems to have been stimulating
to the imagination. W. S. Lindsay, in his _History of Merchant Shipping_
(vol. iii., p. 291), relates an interesting story of one of the early
races, and as I wish to do the narrative full justice, I give it in Mr.
Lindsay’s own words:
“Mr. T. C. Cowper, of Aberdeen, himself a member of a well-known
ship-building firm in Aberdeen, who had spent some time in China at the
period to which I refer, and to whom I am much indebted for the
information connected with our struggles to maintain our position in
that trade, gives the following graphic description of his voyage home
in the _Ganges_, Captain Deas, belonging to Leith, one of the vessels we
had sent forth after the repeal of our Navigation Laws, to compete with
the Americans in that trade: ‘We loaded,’ he says, ‘new teas at Wampoa,
and sailed on the first of September, 1851. Two of the fastest American
clippers, the _Flying Cloud_ and _Bald Eagle_, sailed two or three days
after us. A great deal of excitement existed in China about the race,
the American ships being the favorites. The southwest monsoon being
strong, the _Ganges_ made a rather long passage to Anjer, but when we
arrived there we found that neither of our rivals had been reported as
having passed. We arrived in the English Channel on the evening of the
16th of December. On the following morning at daylight we were off
Portland, well inshore and under short sail, light winds from the
northeast, and weather rather thick. About 8 A.M. the wind freshened and
the haze cleared away, which showed two large and lofty ships two or
three miles to windward of us. They proved to be our American friends,
having their Stars and Stripes flying for a pilot. Captain Deas at once
gave orders to hoist his signals for a pilot also, and as, by this time,
several cutters were standing out from Weymouth, the _Ganges_, being
farthest inshore got her pilot first on board. I said that I would land
in the pilot-boat and go to London by rail, and would report the ship
that night or next morning at Austin Friars. (She was consigned to my
firm.) The breeze had considerably freshened before I got on board the
pilot cutter, when the _Ganges_ filled away on the port tack, and
Captain Deas, contrary to his wont, for he was a very cautious man,
crowded on all small sails. The Americans lost no time and were after
him, and I had three hours’ view of as fine an ocean race as I can wish
to see; the wind being dead ahead, the ships were making short tacks.
The _Ganges_ showed herself to be the most weatherly of the three; and
the gain on every tack inshore was obvious, neither did she seem to
carry way behind in fore reaching. She arrived off Dungeness six hours
before the other two, and was in the London docks twenty-four hours
before the first, and thirty-six hours before the last of her
opponents.’”
* * * * *
It is always unpleasant to spoil a really good story, but in this
instance I feel constrained to point out that the _Flying Cloud_
arrived at San Francisco on August 31, 1851, after her famous passage of
89 days from New York; it is therefore difficult to understand how she
could have sailed from Wampoa on the Canton River on or about September
1st of that year, as stated by Mr. Cowper; while the _Bald Eagle_ was
not launched until 1852.
On January 3, 1852, the _Illustrated London News_, which then, as now,
had many readers in the United States, published a portrait of the
_Chrysolite_ accompanying an article in which it was stated that both
the _Chrysolite_ and the _Stornoway_ had beaten the _Oriental_ and the
_Surprise_, and that the _Chrysolite_ had completely beaten the _Memnon_
during a race in the Gaspar Straits. This article excited a good deal of
interest in the United States, and it caused the formation by a number
of high-spirited young merchants and ship-owners at Boston of a society
called the American Navigation Club, which consisted of Daniel C. Bacon,
President; Thomas H. Perkins, John P. Cushing, William H. Bordman, John
M. Forbes, Warren Delano, and Edward King. In due time they issued the
following challenge, which was published in all the leading shipping
papers of Great Britain in September, 1852, and was copied into _Bell’s
Life_, at that period the great sporting publication of England:
“The American Navigation Club challenges the ship-builders of Great
Britain to a ship-race, with cargo on board, from a port in England
to a port in China and back. One ship to be entered by each party,
and to be named within a week of the start. These ships to be
modelled, commanded, and officered entirely by citizens of the
United States and Great Britain, respectively. To be entitled to
rank A 1 either at the American offices or at Lloyd’s. The stakes
to be £10,000 a side, satisfactorily secured by both parties, to be
paid without regard to accidents, or to any exceptions, the whole
amount forfeited by either party not appearing. Judges to be
mutually chosen. Reasonable time to be given after notice of
acceptance to build the ships if required, and also for discharging
and loading cargo in China. The challenged party may name the size
of the ships, not under 800 nor over 1200 American registered tons;
the weight and measurement which shall be carried each way; the
allowance for short weight or over-size. Reference may be made to
Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co. for further particulars.
“DANIEL C. BACON, _President_.”
A few weeks later, on October 10, 1852, the following comment appeared
in _Bell’s Life_:
“It will be remembered early in the past month there was wafted
across the broad Atlantic, from the American Navigation Club, a
challenge to the ship-builders of Great Britain, which created no
little interest, and which after the defeat, then just
accomplished, of the magic yacht _America_ by one of our own little
island craft, gave rise to no inconsiderable speculation as to what
might be the result of an acceptance of Brother Jonathan’s
proposal.... The Club by the last clause of their terms held
themselves at liberty to withdraw the challenge should it not be
accepted within thirty days. The limit of the time is now expiring,
and it is with no little disappointment that a letter received from
the head of the eminent banking house of Baring & Co., was received
in Boston a short time since, when it was found that he had nothing
like an acceptance of the challenge to communicate to the American
Club, but that, on the contrary, he had to report no inquiry as to
the proposition. As a sort of enticement, however, to our
ship-builders, the President of the American Navigation Club, Mr.
D. C. Bacon, is authorized, should the present challenge not be
accepted within thirty days, to allow the British vessels a start
of fourteen days before the departure of the American craft. And
also to allow us a crew picked from seamen experienced in voyaging
between English and Chinese ports, while their own crew is to be
composed of American seamen and officers whose experience is
limited in sailing between China and English ports. The Americans,
under the new conditions, are willing to augment the stake to
£20,000, or any higher sum than the £10,000 of the present
conditions most agreeable to us, but the last amount to be the
minimum. The Americans want a match, and it reflects somewhat upon
our chivalry not to accommodate them.”
The London _Daily News_ also published a leader in which it urged the
importance to Great Britain of making good her claim to maritime
supremacy by accepting the challenge and winning the race; but in spite
of all that was said the challenge was not accepted. Had it been,
Captain Dumaresq would have commanded the American ship, and Lieutenant
Maury was to have prepared special wind and current charts for his
assistance. As nearly all the American clippers had been constructed for
the California trade, it is probable that for an important race of this
nature, two ships would have been built especially for the China trade,
and very likely by Donald McKay and Samuel Hall, as the _Flying Cloud_,
_Flying Fish_, _Stag-Hound_, _Game-Cock_, and _Surprise_ had already
placed these two in the front rank of clipper ship builders. No reason
was ever given for the non-acceptance of the challenge, though the
inference seems obvious.
It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the _Stornoway_ and
_Chrysolite_ were not fast vessels; for they were probably the two
fastest ships sailing under the British flag at that time, and were ably
commanded, and on a China voyage, which is very different sailing from a
San Francisco or Australian passage, would have given any ship afloat a
run for her owner’s money. The fitful uncertainty of the monsoons in the
China seas, with an occasional typhoon thrown in, has always rendered
the voyages to and from China rather unsatisfactory tests of speed, and
in this respect not to be compared with those to Australia or to San
Francisco.
The _Stornoway_ and _Chrysolite_ were soon followed by other British
clipper ships, among them the _Abergeldie_, of 600 tons register, built
by Walter Hood & Co., of Aberdeen, in 1851. This vessel was named for
an estate that adjoins Balmoral, at that time under a forty years’ lease
to Prince Albert, and carried a figurehead of His Royal Highness in full
Highland costume.
In 1852, Richard Green, of London, built the _Challenger_, of 699 tons.
This ship, owned by W. S. Lindsay, of London, was constructed with the
avowed purpose of beating the _Challenge_ of New York. A comparison of
the dimensions of this ship and those of the _Sword-Fish_, 1036 tons, is
interesting.
Length Breadth Depth
_Challenger_ 174 ft. 32 ft. 20 ft.
_Sword-Fish_ 169 ft. 6 in. 36 ft. 6 in. 20 ft.
The _Challenger_ was commanded by Captain Killick, who made eight China
voyages in her, the best passage home being 105 days. Although she was
never directly matched with her American rival, they both took part in
an informal race from China in 1852, while the challenge of the
Navigation Club was pending. The passages of the seven vessels, four
American and three British, were as follows:
_Witch of the Wave_ Canton to Deal 90 days.
_Challenge_ Canton to Deal 105 “
_Surprise_ Canton to Deal 106 “
_Stornoway_ Canton to Deal 109 “
_Chrysolite_ Canton to Liverpool 106 “
_Nightingale_ Shanghai to Deal 110 “
_Challenger_ Shanghai to Deal 113 “
It is only fair to state that the _Witch of the Wave_, commanded by
Captain Millett, sailed from Canton, January 5th, in the height of the
northeast monsoon, and made the run, remarkable even at that season of
the year, of 7 days 12 hours from Canton to Java Head, while the three
British clippers, _Stornoway_, _Chrysolite_, and _Challenger_, sailed
later with a moderate monsoon, and the _Challenge_, _Surprise_, and
_Nightingale_ later still, when the monsoon was less favorable. The rate
of freight this year was £8 per ton, the highest that was ever paid.
This race, if so it can be called, resulted in “win, tie, or wrangle” as
it was claimed, for one reason or another, by every vessel engaged in
it, and ended by Sampson & Tappan, of Boston, offering to match the
_Nightingale_ for £10,000 against any ship, British or American, for a
race to China and back. The rivalry of the American clipper ships among
themselves was as keen as with those of Great Britain, and this
challenge was intended for the Navigation Club, of Boston, of which
Sampson & Tappan were not members, and for New York as well, quite as
much as for the British clippers; but it found no response from either
side of the Atlantic.
The _Nightingale_ was owned by Sampson & Tappan for a number of years,
during which she made some exceedingly fast passages, under the command
of Captain Samuel Mather. Among them were the passage from Portsmouth,
England, to Shanghai, against the northeast monsoon, in 106 days in
1853; and during the year 1855 a passage from Shanghai to London in 91
days, and from Batavia Roads to London in 70 days, an average of 197
miles per day, her best day’s run being 336 miles.
The _Surprise_ proved one of the most successful American clippers in
the China trade. After her first voyage she was for a number of years
commanded by the captains Charles Ranlett, father and son, and in their
hands made many fine passages--she made eleven consecutive passages from
China to New York in 89 days or less, six from Hong-kong, and five from
Shanghai, the best being 81 days from Shanghai, in 1857. Among other
fast passages from Canton to New York may be mentioned those of the
_Stag-Hound_ 85, 91, and 92 days; _Flying Cloud_, 94 and 96 days; _N. B.
Palmer_, 84 days; _Comet_, _Panama_, and _Hurricane_, each 99 days;
_Sword-Fish_, 80 days; _Sea Serpent_, 88 days; _Vancouver_, 96 days;
_Mandarin_, 89 days; but I am unable to find that Captain Waterman’s
passage of 77 days in the _Sea Witch_ in 1848, and 78 days in the
_Natchez_ in 1845, from Canton to New York, have ever been beaten. In
1854 the _Comet_ made a record passage of 84 days from Liverpool to
Hong-kong, an average of 212 miles per day, and in the same year the
_Typhoon_ made the run from the Lizard to Calcutta in 80 days.
In Great Britain the _Cairngorm_, of 1250 tons register, was built in
1853 by Alexander Hall & Co., and owned by Jardine, Matheson Co. Between
1853 and 1856 came the _Crest of the Wave_, _Norma_, _Flying Dragon_,
_Formosa_, and _Spirit of the Age_, built by John Pile of Sunderland,
and the _Lord of the Isles_ (iron) by John Scott & Co., of Greenock. The
ship last named registered 770 tons, measured: length 190 feet 9 inches,
breadth 27 feet 8 inches, depth 18 feet 5 inches, and was an extremely
sharp and handsome, though a very wet ship. It used to be said that
Captain Maxton, her commander, drove her into one side of a sea and out
the other; at all events, she was generally known among sailormen as the
“Diving Bell.”
The British clippers of this type, which was extremely sharp and narrow,
very nearly held their own against the American ships, and it is much to
be regretted that there never was a fair and square race between them;
for no British and American clipper ships ever sailed from China near
enough together to afford a satisfactory test of speed.
The _Lord of the Isles_ made the remarkable run from Shanghai to London
in 1855 during the northeast monsoon of 87 days. In 1856 she sailed
against the American clipper barque _Maury_, commanded by Captain
Fletcher, from Foo-chow to London, both carrying new teas. In this year
a premium of £1 per ton on the freight was offered for the first ship
home during the season. The reward was offered without regard to the
length of the passage, and was intended to encourage quick despatch in
loading as well as fast sailing. The _Lord of the Isles_ finished
loading and sailed four days ahead of the _Maury_. Both vessels arrived
in the Downs on the same morning and passed Gravesend within ten minutes
of each other, the _Maury_ leading, but Captain Maxton, having the
smartest tug, succeeded in getting his ship first into dock, and so won
the prize. The _Maury_ was an exceedingly pretty barque of about 600
tons, built by Roosevelt & Joyce, and owned by A. A. Low & Brother. She
was a very similar vessel to the barques _Fairy_, _Penguin_, and
_Benefactor_, by the same builders, all engaged in the China trade. The
_Lord of the Isles_ was the only tea-clipper built of iron at that time.
It was found that she sweated her tea cargoes, though otherwise they
were delivered in excellent condition, and she was certainly a very fast
vessel.
At this period (1853-1856) British iron ships, both sail and steam, were
coming into favor for other trades, but their introduction had been
slow. It is not easy at the present time to realize the difficulties
attending the building of the first iron vessels. The rolling of iron
plates to a uniform thickness was a matter requiring great care and
skill, and a number of years elapsed before plates exceeded or even
reached ten feet in length; then bending the frames and riveting the
plates were difficult processes, only learned through much trial and
experiment. In the early days, when an iron ship was completed, her
owner’s troubles had only begun. Finding a composition that would
prevent fouling and at the same time not destroy the plates; the
adjustment of compasses, and devising effective means of ventilation,
were all matters that required years of investigation and labor, to say
nothing of the prejudice against iron vessels, which time and experience
alone could overcome. Yet it was the skilful use of this stubborn metal
in the construction of ships, together with wise legislation, that
enabled Great Britain to regain her empire upon the sea.