Kaisow (clipper)
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''Kaisow'', a
composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were generally narrow for their len ...
, was built by Robert Steele & Company at
Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
and launched on 19 November 1868. Robert Steele & Company also built the famous clippers and which took part in the great tea race of 1866, and , another renown clipper ship. ''Kaisow'' was the 173rd vessel to have been built by the yard. She was in length, had a beam of , a depth of and measured at . The clipper had a demiman
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...
.


Service history


Alexander Rodger

''Kaisow'' was originally owned by Alexander Rodger,
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and commanded by Captain Anderson. She made a voyage from
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
on 1 December 1869 in 99 days, and in 1870 made a transit back from
Foochow Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Mindong linguistic and cultural region. Fuzhou's population was 8, ...
with a cargo of
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...
to
Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...
in 99 days.


Killick Martin & Company

''Kaisow'' was brought by
Killick Martin & Company Killick Martin and Company Ltd is a privately owned global transport and logistics company with its head office in the United Kingdom. The company can trace its origins back to 1861 when it was founded by James Killick, Captain James Killick a ...
, led by Captain James Killick in 1875 and was captained by John Gadd between 1876 and 1885. ''Kaisow'' was a
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...
in the Killick Martin fleet to ''Wylo'', the last ship to be built by Robert Steele & Company. Under Killick Martin ownership ''Kaisow'' never made a tea passage from China to the U.K., but did load tea to
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
and
Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...
. She also made three Trans-Pacific passages between Shanghai and Victoria between 1877 and 1879, not returning to her home port of London for two years and four months. The times of these transits being equal to any previously recorded. In 1878 she was
barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...
-rigged so she could be manned with a smaller crew. In 1883 ''Kaisow'' passed the eruption of
Krakatoa Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. Tw ...
. Second mate on ''Kaisow'' was Harry Davis, who went onto be a captain himself, wrote a very graphic account of the experience. He described how Captain John Gadd sailed the ship down the Straits, braced sharp up, how the ship weathered the erupting island and so got into the open water and felt the tail end of a huge tidal wave which tore north up the Straits, overwhelming the two sides, wiping out the town of Anjur and killing some 30,000 people.


William Bowden Jr and fate

On 29 April 1885 ''Kaisow'' was sold to William Bowden Jr of
Llanelly Llanelly () is a village, Community (Wales), community, and parish in the county of Monmouthshire, South East Wales. It formerly existed in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The population of the community and ward at the 2011 United Kin ...
,
Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...
. Between 1885 and 1891 ''Kaisow'' made several journeys between Liverpool, Valparaiso and
Coquimbo Coquimbo is a port List of cities in Chile, city, Communes of Chile, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo is situated in a valley south of La Serena, Chile, La S ...
with cargoes of
manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...
ore. On 15 November 1891 the clipper foundered west southwest of Valparaiso on a voyage from Coquimbo after cargoes had shifted aboard the vessel.


Wreck report

A transcription of a Board of Trade Wreck Report for ''Kaisow'' in 1891 reads as follows: (No. 4447.) "KAISOW." Finding of a Naval Court of Inquiry held at Valparaiso on the 26th and 27th days of November 1891. "The Court, pursuant to an order from Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General at Valparaiso, proceeded to investigate the cause and manner of the abandonment at sea of the British barque Kaisow of London, official No. 60,392, and having deliberately weighed and considered the evidence and observations preferred by the master, officers, and crew of the vessel, The Court finds:- That the Kaisow, a composite barque of 795 tons register (re-classed in 1887 for 13 years, A 1 Lloyd's, London), sailed from Valparaiso at 5 p.m. on the 14th day of the present month of November, with a cargo of about 1,170 tons of manganese ore, bound for the United Kingdom, and was abandoned at sea at about 60 miles west-south-west of Valparaiso, in a sinking and unmanageable condition at 5 a.m. on the 15th instant. That from the evidence adduced, the Court is of opinion that the vessel was in a thorough seaworthy condition at the time of her departure from this port, and that the cargo was stowed in the proper and customary manner. That at 2 a.m. on the 15th instant, the ship, being under topsails and
foresail A foresail is one of a few different types of sail set on the foremost mast (''foremast'') of a sailing vessel: * A fore-and-aft sail set on the foremast of a schooner or similar vessel. * The lowest square sail on the foremast of a full-rigged ...
, was struck by a heavy sea, which hove the vessel on her beam ends, and which must have caused the cargo to shift to
starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...
. That efforts were made to righten the vessel by putting her before the wind, but without success. That as the ship was rapidly filling with water, the master and crew were constrained to take to the lifeboat and abandon the vessel; that the vessel disappeared shortly after. That there were no deaths. That the master and crew succeeded in reaching land a few miles south of the River Limari on the 16th instant, whence they proceeded to Tongoi on the following day, arriving there at noon on the 18th. Further, the Court is of opinion that the master did all in his power to save the vessel, and that he was justified in abandoning her when he did. Therefore, the Court has pleasure in returning to Mr. William Davies, the master, his certificate, and doth recommend that Mr. Arthur Woodley, the mate, be supplied with duplicates of his certificates which were lost with the vessel."


''Kaisow'' artwork

The renown maritime artists
Montague Dawson Montague Dawson RSMA, FRSA (1890–1973) was a British painter who was renowned as a maritime artist. His most famous paintings depict sailing ships, usually clippers or warships of the 18th and 19th centuries. Life Montague Dawson was the s ...
and Barry Mason have painted ''Kaisow'', and images of her are still being produced today.


References

* ''The China Clippers'';
Basil Lubbock Alfred Basil Lubbock MC (9 September 1876 – 3 September 1944 at Monks Orchard, Seaford) was a British historian, sailor and soldier. He was a prolific writer on the last generation of commercial sailing vessels in the Age of Sail. He was an e ...
; 1914.


External links


Clyde Ships

The Northern Mariner

Killick Martin & Company Ltd

Richard Joslin Fine Art

Prints & Fine Art

Wreck Site
{{1880 shipwrecks Tea clippers Individual sailing vessels Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom Ships built in Scotland Shipwrecks