User:ThoughtIdRetired/draft article on Scawfell (tea clipper)

The Scawfell was a tea clipper built in Workington in 1858. She arguably held the record for the fastest voyage from Whampoa to Liverpool, as 85 days pilot to pilot in 1861. She was initially owned by Rathbones and sailed for them under Captain Robert Thomson until 1872, when she was then sold to Wilson and Balin of South Shields. Ownership changed again in 1880, to W. Hutchinson of Newcastle. She was eventually lost on 9th January 1893 when her pumps became clogged with her cargo of coal during a force 12 gale in the Western Approaches.

The Tea Trade Under Sail
Tea was introduced from China to Europe in the 17th century, but, as a luxury item, was not transported in significant quantities until the 19th century. China was the main centre of production until late in the 19th century. The British East India Company's monopoly of the tea trade from China to Britain ceased in 1834. This opening to competition meant that faster ships were needed, as different merchants tried to be first in the market with each new crop of tea. Tea Clippers were designed for speed; unlike the slower East Indiamen that had carried tea during the monopoly. As quicker ships were added to the merchant fleet, newspapers started to report on fast passages. Those that had achieved record-breaking passages could usually command a higher freight (the price paid to transport the cargo) than others. Tea wholesalers would even mention in adverts which ship had carried the different batches being sold.

The Suez Canal opened in 1869, giving a shorter route from China to Europe. This greatly increased the advantage of using steamships to transport tea from China, giving a quicker and more predictable journey. At the same time, the technology of steamships improved, compound engines gave better fuel economy and the greater size of these competing ships meant 2 or 3 times as much cargo could be carried as in a sailing vessel. Within a short time, the numbers of clippers carrying tea had fallen dramatically. MacGregor's history of tea clippers lists most of these ships sailing to China each year. In the 1869-70 tea season, details are given of 60 tea clippers sailing from China to British or American ports. By 1872-73 this had fallen to 42. In 1879-80, only 12 are shown.

Build
The Scawfell was built as a fully rigged ship by Charles Lamport at Workington in 1858. She was built of wood with iron braces. Her beams were of teak, and the planking and deck of oak. She was constructed under cover, taking only five months from raising her frame to launch. The frames were sawn out in Sussex, Staffordshire and Hereford.

Though strongly built, her lines were drawn for speed. An indication of the extreme design is that when lost at sea, she was still carrying 50 tons of permanent iron ballast - something which many similar ships in the 1870's would have had removed to improve cargo carrying capacity.

MacGregor uses the Coefficient of Under Deck Tonnage to measure the "sharpness" of the design of ships. He explains "sharpness" or "fineness" (qualities that give a faster-sailing hull) as follows: Consider a rectangular block of wood from which you are going to carve a model of the ship's hull - the length is scaled to the real length, as is the draft and the beam. You then have to cut away wood to change the block to the shape of the hull. The more that is cut away (maintaining the three main dimensions), generally speaking, the finer the hull. A merchant ship built to carry the maximum cargo will have a shape that is closer to the original rectangular block than a "fine lined" clipper hull, built primarily for speed. The Coefficient of Under Deck Tonnage for Scawfell and a few other selected ships is as follows:
 * Cutty Sark  0.55
 * Scawfell    0.57
 * Serica      0.57
 * Ariel       0.60
 * Taeping     0.63

The Scawfell's lines were complex: for instance she had a raking mid-section, with the broadest point of the hull being further aft at greater heights above the keel. This has the effect of reducing pitching, so allowing faster sailing.


 * 1) put dimensions in here

The Scawfell arrived in Liverpool from Workington on Saturday 17th April 1858. She then departed for Hong Kong on 31st May 1858

First Owner
The Scawfell was built on the instructions of Messrs. Rathbone, Brothers and Co. of Liverpool (Rathbones). This company was one of the first exploiters of the removal of the East India Company monopoly on tea. The Act specified that tea could be imported from any port east of the Meridian of the Cape of Good Hope. A merchant noticed that Danzig (now Gdansk) is some 15 miles east of this meridian and imported 2,200 chests of tea into Liverpool from there for Rathbones. Clearly this was not the intent of the Act, and soon independent importers were competing with cargoes from China, as intended. Rathbones gradually expanded in the tea trade during the 1840s and by the time the Scawfell was built, they were a major tea importer. Nowdays, Rathbones is an investment manager with offices across the UK, but still aware of a mercantile history going back to at least 1742. They owned the Scawfell until 1872, by which time, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, it had become faster and more economical to transport cargoes of tea from China by steamship.

Tea Passages by the Scawfell
The Scawfell's record breaking passage of the 1860-61 tea season started from Whampoa anchorage on 13th January 1861. She departed the Canton river on 14th January the next day and passed Anjer on 25th January on her way into the Indian Ocean. She picked up her pilot for Liverpool at Point Lynas at dawn on 11th April and docked the same day. The overall passage time is 88 days, but Captain Thomson claimed this as 84 and a half days - presumably measured as pilot to pilot. It is worth noting that the next fastest passage in the same season was 100 days by the Aerolite from Shanghai to London. Looking at other years, Zingra made Shanghai to Liverpool in 85 days in the 1863-64 season and in the same season Nonpareil made the same passage in 87 days. Anything under 100 days is exceptional.

Later Ownership
Race