''Taitsing'' was a famous British tea

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 ...

Tea Clipper Taitsing

''Taitsing'' was a

full-rigged A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing ship, sailing vessel with a sail plan of three or more mast (sailing), masts, all of them square rig, square-rigged. Such a vessel is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged, with each mas ...

, composite-built

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were gen ...

, measuring in length, with a beam of and a draught of . She was built in 1865 by Charles Connell & Co,

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 ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, for Findlay & Longmuir,

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 ...

, Scotland. ''Taitsing'' was launched on 25 July 1865. The ship sailed 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 ...

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ports like

Amoy Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

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 ...

Wusong Wusong, Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Woosung, is a subdistrict of Baoshan District, Shanghai, Baoshan in northern Shanghai. Prior to the city's expansion, it was a separate port town located down the Huangpu River from Shanghai' ...

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

, and

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. She also travelled from Fuzhou to

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in 1874. In 1876 the ship was sold to James Findlay of Greenock. She was sold to John Willis & Son

obert D. Willis Obert may refer to the following people: Given name *Obert Bika (born 1993), Papua New Guinean football midfielder *Obert Logan (1941–2003), American football safety *Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwean politician *Obert A. Olson (1882–1938), American p ...

of London in 1879.

The Great Tea Race of 1866

Laden with just over a million pounds (453,600 kg) of tea, ''Taitsing'', under the command of Captain Nutsford, raced nine other ships from China to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 ...

. The first five ships – ''Taiping'', ''Ariel'', ''Serica'', ''Fiery Cross'', and ''Taitsing'' – finished the 14,000- nautical-mile (25,930-km) race within three days of each other. ''Taitsing'' arrived fifth, in "the closest run ever recorded." ''Taitsing''′s best 24-hour run during the race was on 2 July 1866, when she traveled , averaging ).

Sinking

''Taitsing'', carrying a load of patent fuel from

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

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, sank in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

off Nyuni Island,

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, on 20 September 1883.

In culture

A painting of ''Taitsing'' signed by the Chinese painter Hingqua, along with a painting of the clipper

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

''Venus'', sold at auction at

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in New York City in 2009. Hungarian writer András Dékány centered his second fiction book of his "Monostory" trilogy "The Black Prince" ("A fekete herceg") around the Taitsing, and the great tea clipper race. András Dékány was a writer, journalist, critic, while in early life worked among other things as sailor. A number of his books spoke about sailboats and sailors, including the "Monostory" trilogy, a fictional work centered on Lt. Balázs Monostory who becomes sailor during the failed

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848, also known in Hungary as Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many Revolutions of 1848, European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in ...

and in this fictional book he becomes captain of Taitsing for the time of the race.

References

External links

Paintings

The Ship ''Taitsing'' entering Hong Kong, July 1877

Clipper ship ''Taitsing'' China trade portrait

"Ship TAITSING Visiting China", David Thimgan, 1955-2003

''Taitsing'', composite ship picture by David Michael Hartigan Little

"Fleeting Colors", British Tea Clipper ''Taitsing'', 1866-67, by Jim Griffiths, Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport

Scale model

* * Model built to a scale of 32 feet to one inch. Based on plans from:
Scale model of ''Taitsing''
{{coord missing, Indian Ocean Clippers Individual sailing vessels Tall ships of the United Kingdom Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom Ships built in Glasgow Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean Maritime incidents in September 1883 1865 ships Full-rigged ships