III. TEA CLIPPERS
TITANIA (1866 - 1910), 879 tons, length 200ft, beam 36ft, depth 21ft. Of composite (iron frame
planking) construction, built by Robert Steele, Greenock, for Shaw, Lowther, Maxton & Co.
The owners wanted a stiffer boat than ARIEL or SIR LANCELOT and Steele achieved this with
a wider beam. The result was a fast boat (among the 'cracks') and one that was easy to handle.
She made fiteen voyages to the Far East and one to Bribane and Lyttelton from 1867 to 1885.
The tea trade became increasingly uncertain in the late seventies and she had to look for other
cargoes e.g. jute from Manila in 1880-81, to Australia and NewZealand in 1882-83 and to Madras
for a cargo of dye nuts and cow horns In 1885, she was bought by the Hudson Bay Co with whom
she made six voyages beginning in 1886 around the Horn to British Columbia. In 1894 she
was bought by Italian owners who placed her in the Mauritius and South Amerian trades. In 1909,
she was laid up in Marseilles and broken up in 1910.
LEANDER (1867 - 1901), 883 tons net, length 210ft, beam 35ft 2in, depth 20ft 8in. Of composite
(iron frame planked) construction, designed by Bernard Warmouth (who later designed
THERMOPYLAE) and built by Lawrie, Glasgow, for Joseph Somes' and became his 'pet' ship
(described as "Somes' yacht"). An extreme clipper which was best in light wind and going to
windward but tender and very wet in strong wind. Regarded however as one of the "cracks".
From 1868 to to 1880, she made eleven voyages to China from where (Woosung, Amoy,
Shanghai) she went to New York on seven of these voyages. She continued to get tea cargoes
in the eighties when by 1886 most other clippers had left the tea trade. In 1892, she wa sold
to a Mauritius owner and she traded between Mauritius, Bbombay and Calcutta. She was
stranded and and damaged in a cyclone at Port Louis, Mauritius, in 1892. In 1895 she was
bought by owners in Oman and renamed NUSROOLMUJEED. In1901, she was broken up.
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NORMAN COURT (1869 1883), 834 tons, length 197ft 4in, beam 33ft, depth 20ft. Of composite
(iron frame planked) construction, designed by William Rennie and built by A. & J. Inglis, Glasgow,
for Baring Bros., London. An extreme clipper, she was-fast in light wind and at her best in head seas.
She made eight passages to China from 1870 to 1879. She was converted to a barque in 1877. In
1878, she had difficulty in getting a tea cargo but eventually got a charter from Hong Kong to Port
Elizabeth. Her last tea passage was from Foochow to Dover in 1879. In 1880, she went to the
Coramandel Coast and brought home a cargo of dye nuts and cow and deer horns. Baring Bros.
were not interested in the low freight rates then available and sold her in 1881. She was bought by
a Greenock firm which put her in the Java sugar trade. She made two voyages to the East indies in
1881 and 1882 In March, 1883, she was wrecked on the coast of Anglesea returning from Java on
her second voyage.
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