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Scawfell | Official Number
21490 |
The Scawfell was a wooden full-rigged ship built by Charles
Lamport
at Workington in 1858. She was strongly built, with teak beams,
strengthened
with iron braces, and with oak planking and an oak deck. She could
carry
a cargo of just over 1 million pounds of tea (approx. 500 tonnes in
modern
measurement). The Scawfell was a true tea clipper, and under
Capt.Robert Thomson
achieved one of the fastest ever voyages from China to England, leaving
the Canton River on the 14th January 1861 and arriving off Point Lynas,
bound for Liverpool, on the 11th April (85 days pilot to pilot).
The Chronicle, Friday, 12th April 1861;
" RAPID PASSAGE FROM CHINA TO LIVERPOOL - The ship Scawfell, Captain Thompson, of
this port, arrived on Thursday morning from Whampoa, China, with a
cargo
of tea and silk, after a capital passage, having left her anchorage at
Whampoa, on the 13th, discharged her pilot on the 14th and arrived at
Liverpool yesterday, making the passage from port to port in 88 days -
one of the fastest recorded."
The Liverpool Mercury, Saturday, 13th April, 1861;
" QUICK PASSAGE - The Scawfell,
of Liverpool, Captain Robert Thomson, left Whampoa anchorage on the
13th and the Canton river on the 14th January. She took her pilot on
board at Point Lynas at daylight on the 11th April, and reached her
anchorage at Liverpool the same day at noon., being 86 and a half days
from port to port, or 88 days from anchorage to anchorage. This is the
shortest passage ever made, and is the more creditable to Captain
Thompon and to the builder (Mr.Charles Lamport, of Workington) because
the Scawfell is a very
strong Cumberland-built ship, and from her strength much heavier than
most ships that are built. She also carries a large cargo for her
tonnage."
Other China voyages recorded in "The Tea Clippers" include:
The Scawfell was first owned by Rathbone Bros. of Liverpool, and then was sold to Wilson & Balin of South Shields in 1872, then W.Hutchinson of Newcastle in 1880. She was abandoned at sea in a Force 12 storm on the 9th January 1883, at 47.30 N 11.10 W, her pumps having become blocked by the coal cargo.
The Times, Wednesday, 31st January, 1883, page 6;
" Captain Kane, of the barque Rosedale, of Belfast,
reports that on the 9th inst. he rescued the master and crew of the
barque Scawfell, which was then in a sinking conditon.
Subsequently
the
rescued crew were transferred to a German vessel, and thence to the
ship Norwhal, which has landed them at Falmouth."
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Sources :