subject: All about tea clippers (ships) [print this page] All about tea clippers (ships) All about tea clippers (ships)
The first countries to import tea to Europe were the Portuguese and Dutch traders. By about 1610 they were making regular shipments. During the 17th and 18th century the East India Company had a monopoly on the British tea trade with India and China. The clippers that carried the tea were strong and immense in size. The reason for this was because of the need to carry as much tea as possible on each ship so as to minimize costs. The round trip to China took the clipper ships about two years, and that was with good sailing conditions. The reign of the East India Company ended in 1834 when they lost their trading monopolies.
The first ships to adopt the name "clipper" were the Baltimore clippers. They were developed for the American Revolution. They were designed to be light and usually weighed no more than 200 tons. The name clipper refers to the amount of time they took to sail between destinations. Basically they clipped the time of the journey. Trips that previously took about a year to complete were now over and done within 100 days. The first British clipper to sail the seas was the Torrington, launched in 1846 which was in response to the American clippers.
The use of clippers to carry tea was confined mainly to America until 1849 when British navigation laws changed. Now, American ships could take tea from China to Britain. The Oriental was the first ship to make good headway once the new navigation laws had passed. It made a record run of just 97 days from Hong King to London which beat many of the ships of that era. The British responded to this by building a tea clipper of their own to rival the Oriental. The ship in question was the Stornaway which was built in Aberdeen in 1850.
Later tea clippers that where built in Britain where designed for speed. Compared to tea clippers built in America they had narrower beam. This made for a faster but weaker ship which faired best in lighter winds. A great deal of competition existed between the American and British tea clippers. The Americans ended their part in the tea trade around 1855.
The Cutty Sark was first launched in 1869 and became a large part of tea trade. The tea trade was very competitive but the Cutty Sark fared well against its rivals thanks to some impressively fast runs between China and London. The public was well aware of the rivalry between the British and American clippers from the stories printed in newspapers. As a matter of interest the times of the clippers where recorded in the newspapers for the international tea races, capturing the imagination of thousands of people in Britain. Bets were made to spice up the excitement of the arrival of the clippers. The adventure and intrigue of the tea clippers produced some exciting times for the public.
