The opium clippers / by Basil Lubbock.

  • Lubbock, Basil, 1876-1944.
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The opium clippers / by Basil Lubbock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    130/482 (page 96)
    Honourable Company’s ship Pitt discovered this way of getting to Canton, which became known as the Eastern Passage. On her third voyage against the monsoon Red Rover dropped her Calcutta pilot on January 11, 1832, was off Penang on January 21, anchored at Singapore on January 27 and took her Canton pilot on February 28, 48 days out from the Sandheads. Still I have no records of any other clippers in the N.E. monsoon; but two remarkable passages were made during the favourable monsoon, by the Sylph (Captain Wallace), and the Waterwitch (Captain Henderson). The Sylph arrived off Lintin on September 1, 1832, 18 days out from the Sandheads which she had left on August 14, and the Waterwitch took 21 days for the same passage. In 1833 the Red Rover again conquered the monsoon in excellent time, but I still have no records of other vessels. Captain Clifton dropped his pilot off the Sandheads on January 1, 1833, passed Penang on January 9, arrived Singapore on January 15 and took his China pilot on February 10, 40 days out. Up to this date the only vessels attempting the passage to China during the unfavourable monsoon were the Jamesina, Falcon, Red Rover, Waterwitch, and Sylph. One other vessel, evidently a clipper, made one trip against the N.E. monsoon, and that was the Lady of the Lake, of 243 tons, in 1832. This little country ship, however, did not stay long in the opium trade. In 1836 her captain, James Pearson, who was then sole owner, took her to Hobart, Tasmania, and sold her locally. She continued trading under various changes of ownership until 1877, when she was broken up.