''Lammermuir'', named for the Lammermuir Hills, was a tea

clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

Jock Willis Shipping Line John Willis & Sons of London, also called the Jock Willis Shipping Line, was a nineteenth-century London-based ship-owning firm. It owned a number of clippers including the historic tea clipper ''Cutty Sark''. Company history and its people ...

. She was a fast sailer, being the second ship home in the 1858-59 tea season. She was a favourite of John Willis senior.

Building

Michael Byers & Co built ''Lammermuir'' at his Strand Street shipyard in

Monkwearmouth Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bish ...

, launching her on 8 January 1856 and completing her on 20 February. She had a wooden hull. Her registered length was , her beam was , her depth was and her

tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on ''tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically ref ...

was . She had three masts. She did not set any sails above royals, but she did have a great spread of sail. John Willis registered the ship at

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Her UK

official number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

was 13717.

Loss

''Lammermuir'' was wrecked on the Amherst Reef in the Macclesfield Channel,

Gaspar Strait The Gaspar Strait ( id, Selat Gaspar) is a strait separating the Indonesian islands Belitung ( en, Billiton, link=no) and Bangka. It connects the Java Sea with the South China Sea. Etymology The strait is named after a Spanish captain, who ...

, on 31 December 1863. Jock "White Hat" Willis commissioned a replacement , which was launched in 1864 and completed in 1865. The wreck of the first ''Lammermuir'' was still visible above the water line in August 1866 when the second ''Lammermuir'' sailed past en route to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and also subsequently in 1874.

References

Bibliography

*Broomhall, Alfred James, 1983, ''Hudson Taylor and China's Open Century'', Volume Four: Survivors' Pact, London,

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...

and

Overseas Missionary Fellowship OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It ...

External links

* {{coord missing, Indonesia Individual sailing vessels Tea clippers 1856 ships Age of Sail merchant ships of England Ships built on the River Wear Shipwrecks of Indonesia Maritime incidents in 1863