Tea Advisor
Aspects of Tea Production
The Americans had developed fast sailing ships as privateers during the war against the British of 1812. These had sleek lines, a sharp bow and lots of sail. (A captured American privateer was used as a model for the British opium clippers that sailed between India and China. The first of these was the Red Rover, which was launched in 1829. Its captain, William Clifton, who had copied the design of the privateer Prince de Neufchatel, received £10,000 ($19,698) from the Governor-General of India for speeding up the opium run to Canton.) From these privateers the Americans developed the first tea clippers. The Rainbow, launched in 1845, made the journey from New York to Canton in 102 days, knocking sixteen days off the previous record. In 1849 the Sea Witch cut the time to seventy-four days. The repeal of the British Navigation Laws in 1849 allowed American ships to carry tea direct from China to Britain. The first American clipper to carry tea from China to London was the Oriental, which made the journey from Hong Kong in ninety-seven days. This was three times the speed of the lumbering East Indiaman. There was a furore in London, and a determination to rival the Americans.
The 1860s were the great days of the tea clippers. During the 1850s the British had mastered the building techniques developed by the Americans. The Americans themselves had more important uses for their ships, as they were enmeshed in a civil war. The opening up of the Treaty Ports made the races more interesting, for tea could be taken from the port of Foochow, close to the tea fields, immediately after it had been plucked and manufactured. Large sums were wagered on which would be the first boat back to Britain. The most famous race was in 1866, with forty entrants, which ended in a dead heat between the Ariel and the Taeping.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought the races to an end, for it made the trade viable to steamships. There had been a few slow steamers on the China trade previously, but they were not efficient, for they had to provide space for large quantities of fuel. The Suez Canal route had its own coaling stations en route, which gave steamers the advantage over the clippers sailing around Africa. The last clipper race was in 1871.
One of the last clippers to be constructed was the Cutty Sark, launched in 1869, now on display at Greenwich, in London. It is interesting to see how tightly the chests of tea were packed in, both to make maximum use of the limited space and to prevent the cargo shifting; and extraordinary to realize that such a small ship might carry a million pounds of tea.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
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