The ''Serica'' was a
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 ...
built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Co., 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 ...
on the south bank of the
Clyde, Scotland, for James Findlay. She was the last-but-one wooden clipper built by Steele before the yard went over to building composite clippers.
Winner of 1864 Tea Race
''Serica'' is Latin for "
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
"—the ship was built expressly for the China
tea trade. ''Serica'' participated in the annual "tea races" to bring the new season's crop to London; she won in 1864. In 1865 she was the leading ship off
Beachy Head
Beachy Head is a Chalk Group, chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, East Sussex, Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters, Sussex, Seven Sisters.
Beachy Head is located within the administrative ar ...
, but failed to get a tug to take her on to London, so was beaten by 12 hours by
''Fiery Cross''. In
The Great Tea Race of 1866
In the middle third of the 19th century, the clippers which carried cargoes of tea from China to Britain would compete in informal races to be first ship to dock in London with the new crop of each season. The Great Tea Race of 1866 was keenly ...
, she came in third, by a matter of hours.
Sailing performance
According to
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 ...
, the tea clippers ''Serica'', ''
Fiery Cross'',
''Lahloo'' and ''
Taeping
The ''Taeping'' was a tea clipper built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Company of Greenock and owned by Captain Alexander Rodger of Cellardyke, Fife. Over her career, ''Taeping'' was the first clipper to dock in London in three different tea seaso ...
'' performed at their best in light breezes, as they were all rigged with single
topsail
A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.
Square rig
On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...
s.
[
]
Loss of the ship
On her final voyage under Capt. George Innes, she left
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
bound for
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
, 2 November 1872, and was wrecked on the
Paracels, in the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
the following day. Out of a crew of twenty-three that manned her, only one survived.
See also
*
List of clipper ships
The period of clipper ships lasted from the early 1840s to the early 1890s, and over time features such as the Hull (watercraft), hull evolved from wooden to composite ship, composite. At the 'crest of the clipper wave' year of 1852, there were ...
Notes
External links
Newspaper notices of the ''Sericas arrival in New York, 28 December 1871
{{coord missing, Pacific Ocean
Tea clippers
Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Ships built on the River Clyde
Shipwrecks in the South China Sea
1863 ships