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.

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    CHAPTER IV. A BOOMING TRADE. I went aloft one morning To take a look around, And there I spied a clipper ship For China she was bound. Adventurous Voyages up the Coast in 1832. WITH the conquest of the monsoon by the clippers and the resulting increase in the amount of the drug coming to China, it became more important than ever to find new markets to the North East, and in 1832 serious efforts were made by the opium houses to supplement the clandestine Canton market. The first vessel to be despatched to the Northward was Rus- tomjee’s Agnes, which sailed from Lintin at the end of January. She, however, only proceeded a short distance up the coast and then brought up off a walled town, called Shin Tsean. Here she lay for a month patiently waiting for the smugglers to come off to her, but though she was supplied with fresh provisions by a local compradore no one showed any desire for her opium, and in March the captain ran back to Macao in disgust. The next vessel to sail into the unknown was the frigate-built Blackwaller Lord Amherst, a smart ship of 506 tons and 70 men, which was chartered by the Honourable Company for 2500 dollars, from her consignees, Whiteman & Co., and loaded with broadcloth, camlets, calico and cotton, but not a single chest of opium. She was commanded by Captain Rees, but an official of the Company named Lindsay was in charge of the expedition. The “ Lord Amherst ” Tries to Open General Trade. Sailing from Whampoa on February 26, 1832, the Lord Amherst was much held up at first by the strong monsoon, and it