''Sylph'' 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 ...

ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong–based merchant house

Jardine Matheson Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange ...

, in 1833 ''Sylph'' set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to

Macao Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the ter ...

in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849.

History

''Sylph'' was designed in London by Sir

Robert Seppings Sir Robert Seppings, FRS (11 December 176725 April 1840) was an English naval architect. His experiments with diagonal trusses in the construction of ships led to his appointment as Surveyor of the Navy in 1813, a position he held until 1835. ...

, surveyor of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, to the order of a consortium of Calcutta merchants headed by Rustomjee Cowasjee. Two contemporary paintings of ''Sylph'' show her to have been a heavily rigged ship with

trysail A trysail (also known as a spencer) is a small triangular or gaff rigged sail hoisted in place of a larger mainsail when winds are very high. The trysail provides enough thrust to maintain control of the ship, e.g. to avoid ship damage, and to ...

s on each mast and a tall, high-peaked spanker. Sleek, elegant, functional and devoid of ornament, ''Sylph'' did not have the rakish lines of the later clippers, yet proved to be particularly swift. She is supposed to have run from the Sandheads to Macao in sixteen days. Arriving at Macao in September 1832, ''Sylph'' unloaded some of the opium she had transported from

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. William Jardine and James Matheson chartered four vessels to sail north to explore the possibility of new markets for opium. ''Sylph'', Wallace, master, left Lintin on 20 October 1832. ''Sylph'' departed with the German Protestant missionary

Karl Gützlaff Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (8 July 1803 – 9 August 1851), anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a Germans, German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and in ...

on board as translator. ''Sylph'' returned on 29 April 1833. ''Jamesina'', James Innes, master, left Lintin on 8 November and returned in early spring 1833. The next two vessels were ''John Biggar'', William Makay, master, and ''Colonel Young'', John Rees, master. During the

First Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

(1839–1842) Jardine Matheson & Co. were offered a premium price for ''Sylph'', an offer they declined on the basis of the huge profits she made from transporting opium. ''Sylph'' and another well-known clipper, ''Cowasjee Family'', were fitted out with extra guns and full European crews during the war, and were joined by the ''Lady Hayes'', belonging to Jardine, Matheson & Co., the three ships sailing in company. While they were sailing among the islands Chinese war junks surrounded them and a fierce battle ensued. But Captains Wallace and Vice, of ''Sylph'' and ''Cowasjee Family'', were two of the most experienced captains in the trade, celebrated for their daring and success in dealing with pirates, and the war junks suffered a severe defeat, many of them being sunk; after which the opium clippers had no more trouble. While sailing from Calcutta to China and carrying 995 chests of opium, ''Sylph'' ran aground on a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

off the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

on 30 January 1835. According to the

Canton Register ''The Canton Register'' was an English language newspaper founded by Scottish merchants James Matheson and his nephew Sir Alexander Matheson, 1st Baronet, Alexander together with Philadelphian William Wightman Wood, the first editor. First publishe ...

dated 14 April 1835, Captain Wallace told the vessel's insurers that she had been swamped, then beached by the northeast

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

. The

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

''Clive'' came to the rescue and the ship and all but two chests of opium were recovered.

Fate

After undergoing re-rigging in Hong Kong in 1848 at a cost of 11,166.22 Mexican dollars, ''Sylph'' disappeared ''en route'' to Singapore the following year, possibly captured and burned by pirates based on

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

Island. In a brief to the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

, the Republic of Singapore stated ''Sylph'' was wrecked on the rocks of Pedra Branca off the coast of Singapore whilst carrying a cargo of opium to the value of 557,200

Spanish dollar The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content fine silver. It w ...

s., As ''Sylph'' disappeared while en route from Hong Kong to Calcutta, she would not have been carrying opium.

Citations

References

*
Online version at Google Books
* * *Phipps, John, (of the Master Attendant's Office, Calcutta), (1840) ''A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ...''. (Scott),

History

Fate

Citations

References

Further reading