The ''Serica'' was a
clipper built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Co., at
Greenock on the south bank of the
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, Scotland, for James Findlay. She was the last-but-one wooden clipper built by Steele before the yard went over to building composite clippers.
Winner of 1864 Tea Race
''Serica'' is Latin for "
China"—the ship was built expressly for the China
tea trade. ''Serica'' participated in the annual "tea races" to bring the new season's crop to London; she won in 1864. In 1865 she was the leading ship off
Beachy Head
Beachy Head is a chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters.
Beachy Head is located within the administrative area of Eastbourne Borough Council which owns the land, formi ...
, but failed to get a tug to take her on to London, so was beaten by 12 hours by
''Fiery Cross''. In
The Great Tea Race of 1866, she came in third, by a matter of hours.
Sailing performance
According to
Basil Lubbock
Alfred Basil Lubbock MC (9 September 1876 – 3 September 1944 at Monks Orchard, Seaford) was a British historian, sailor and soldier. He was a prolific writer on the last generation of commercial sailing vessels in the Age of Sail. He was an e ...
, the tea clippers ''Serica'', ''
Fiery Cross'',
''Lahloo'' and ''
Taeping'' performed at their best in light breezes, as they were all rigged with single
topsail
A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.
Square rig
On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...
s.
[
]
Loss of the ship
On her final voyage under Capt. George Innes, she left
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
bound for
Montevideo, 2 November 1872, and was wrecked on the
Paracels, in the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...
the following day. Out of a crew of twenty-three that manned her, only one survived.
See also
*
List of clipper ships
The period of clipper ships lasted from the early 1840s to the early 1890s, and over time features such as the hull evolved from wooden to composite. At the 'crest of the clipper wave' year of 1852, there were 200 clippers rounding Cape Horn. ...
Notes
External links
Newspaper notices of the ''Sericas arrival in New York, 28 December 1871
{{coord missing, Pacific Ocean
Tea clippers
Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Ships built on the River Clyde
Shipwrecks in the South China Sea
1863 ships