Taeping (clipper, 1863) - SLV H91
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The ''Taeping'' was a tea
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were generally narrow for their len ...
built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Company of Greenock and owned by Captain Alexander Rodger of Cellardyke, Fife. Over her career, ''Taeping'' was the first clipper to dock in London in three different tea seasons. This compares with the highly successful , who won the "premium" in four separate tea seasons. ''Taeping'' was one of the front runners in the very close Great Tea Race of 1866. Despite being ten minutes ahead of ''Taeping'' at
Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...
, ''Taeping'' docked 28 minutes before ''Ariel'' as she did not need to wait so long for the tide to rise to allow entry to her dockand it was whoever docked first that was the winner. The ship's first captain was Donald MacKinnon (Dòmhnall ’ic Nèill ’ic Dhòmnaill Ruaidh) of Heanish,
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. He was taken ill on the outward passage to China for the 1867-68 tea season and put ashore in South Africa, where he died. The first mate, J. Dowdy took over command, remaining in that position until he moved to another clipper in 1871. ''Taeping'' was wrecked on 22 September 1871 on Ladd Reef 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 South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
while traveling to New York.


Construction

Taeping was the first ship built of
composite construction Composite construction is a generic term to describe any building construction involving multiple dissimilar materials. Composite construction is often used in building aircraft, watercraft, and building construction. There are several reasons to ...
in the yard of Robert Steele and Company. Composite construction, a metal framework with wooden planking, gave a stiffer hull that occupied less internal volume, but could still be sheathed with copper (to avoid marine fouling) as the timber electrically insulated the copper from the underlying iron structureso preventing
galvanic corrosion Galvanic corrosion (also called bimetallic corrosion or dissimilar metal corrosion) is an electrochemical process in which one metal corrodes preferentially when it is in electrical contact with another, different metal, when both in the prese ...
. She was launched on 24 December 1863. She measured length on deck, had a beam of and a depth of hold of feet. She was 767 tons.


Career


1864–65 and 1865–1866 tea seasons

''Taeping'' encountered a typhoon on her first trip back from China with a cargo of tea. She left Shanghai on 1 July 1864. After losing her bowsprit, foremast and the main and mizzen topmasts in the storm, she was towed into Amoy by HMS Flamer on 23 July. After the substantial repairs that were needed, she sailed again on 8 October and made the very quick passage of 88 days to Deal. Her 1865 outward passage from London to Hong Kong was 94 days. The homeward passage started on 29 June and was of 104 days.


1866–67 tea season

In May of 1866 ''Taeping'' was one of 16 clippers waiting to load tea in Foochow (Fuzhou). This was the port where the new crop of tea became available at the earliest point in the seasonso this is where ships trying to be the first back to London had to load. She sailed on 30 May, as did (after a delay getting over the bar) and . A multiple previous winner of tea races, had been the first to sail the day before, and left on 31 May. The very close race that followed became known as the Great Tea Race of 1866. Though these ships were out of sight of each other for much of their passage back to England, they were a few days apart for most of that time. Ariel was the first to enter the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
, but with ''Taeping'' in sight as soon as the sun rose. ''Ariel'' was ten minutes ahead of ''Taeping'' at
Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...
, where both ships signalled their numbers and collected pilots. After taking tugs, the two ships had to wait for the tide at
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before proceeding to their respective docks in London. Taeping had the advantage that there were two sets of lock gates to enter
London Docks The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London. They were constructed in Wapping, downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million. Traditionally ships had d ...
. When the tide was high enough, she was able to pass through the outer set of gates and the lock was topped up from the water in the basin. ''Ariel's'' destination,
East India Docks The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall in east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible. History Early history Following the successful creation of the ...
, only had a single set of lock gates. So she had to wait for the tide to rise a little further before she could enter. The result was that ''Taeping'' docked 28 minutes before ''Ariel'', being the winner under the rules. ''Serica'' docked late on the same tide, so three tea clippers had arrived, in commercial terms, at the same time. This would cause a glut in the market for new crop tea. To avoid the tea merchants (who were obliged to pay a "premium" of 10 shillings per ton, as written into the bills of lading, to the winning ship) calling the race void through some technicality, Taeping's owners agreed to share the premium with Ariel if they did not contest the resultand this agreement was put into effect. This was the last tea season in which a "premium" was written into any bill of lading for being the first clipper home from China.


Later voyages

On ''Taeping's'' next outward passage to China, Captain MacKinnon, her master, became seriously ill and was landed at
Algoa Bay Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located on the east coast, east of the Cape of Good Hope. Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to deep. The harbour ...
. He died on the way home, at the age of 41. The first mate, Dowdy, took over command. On the return trip to London, for the 1867-68 season, ''Taeping'' was the fourth ship to sail from Foochow, with ''Serica'' and ''Maitland'' having crossed the bar of the Minh river 3 days before. By the time ''Serica'' was passing Hong Kong, 5 days later, ''Taeping'' had caught up. With a total passage time of 102 days, ''Taeping'' was the first tea clipper to dock in London that season. In the 1868-69 tea season, ''Taeping'' was one of the front runners, putting in a passage of 102 days, but was beaten both on passage time and arrival date by ''Ariel'' and ''Spindrift''. She was the first tea clipper home in the 1870-71 season.


Loss

''Taeping'' struck Ladd Reef in the China Sea on the night of 22 September 1871. She was on route to New York from Amoy. Every effort was made to get her off, but she was stuck fast. The crew took to the ship's three boats and stayed with the ship in the hope that she would be lifted off by the tide. She was abandoned on 24 September and the boats set off for
Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
. They became separated in rough weather. One was picked up by ''Serica'', who was also bound for New York with tea. The other two boats made it safely to land.


References

{{Clipper ships Clippers Individual sailing vessels Tall ships of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde 1863 ships Maritime incidents in 1871