''Lammermuir'' was an extreme

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 ...

ship built in 1864 by Pile, Spence and Company of

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed in ...

for John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis & Son,

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 ...

. She was the second ship to bear the name. The first had been the favorite ship of John Willis, and was wrecked in the

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 ...

in 1863.

Building

''Lammermuir'' was built at Swanson Dock in West Hartlepool, launching her on 23 July 1864 and completing her on 2 February 1865. She had an iron 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 and was a

full-rigged ship A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three se ...

. Willis registered the ship at

. 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 ...

50192 was and her

code letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

were HCVW.

Career

''Lammermuir'' was designed for the China

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

trade. In 1866 she was almost wrecked in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

by two

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

s. Her

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

was

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

M Bell, and she carried the famous

Lammermuir Party The Lammermuir Party was a British group of Protestant missionaries who travelled to China in 1866 aboard the tea clipper ''Lammermuir'', accompanied by James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission. Mission historians have indicat ...

of 18 missionaries and four children of the

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

outbound to China, arriving in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

on 30 September 1866.

Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...

recalled the most perilous time in the voyage: In 1873 ''Lammermuir'' left London for

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, but without the all-important tool chest for her ship's carpenter. John Willis himself rushed to the docks to see to it that ''Orient'' could take the chest along and deliver it to the ship. The captain of ''Orient'' bet Willis that he would overtake ''Lammermuir'' before it crossed the Equator to transfer the chest at sea, which he did.Lubbock, 1921, p. 151 The clipper's last voyage was soon after this, from Adelaide to London on 10 November 1876. She never arrived, and was presumed to have been lost at sea.

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 ...

* * Taylor, F Howard, & Taylor, Mrs, (1918), ''Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God'', Chapter 6, Morgan and Scott {{1876 shipwrecks 1864 ships Individual sailing vessels Sailing ships of the United Kingdom Tea clippers Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom Missing ships Maritime incidents in 1876