Fast and famous
Clipper ships
Clipper was the name applied to the fastest sailing ships, which were inevitably ship rigged. Development of clippers in the latter part of the 19th century was partly in answer to the arrival of steamships, which threatened to make faster voyages with valuable commodities such as tea. There was a premium price on the first of the season’s tea which arrived in Europe from China, and owners and shipyards vied with each other to build ships which would win each season’s ‘tea race’. These ships had very fine underwater lines and the highest practical masts to carry as much sail as possible. The Cutty Sark is probably the most famous because of her preservation on the Thames at Greenwich, but others such as Thermopylae, Ariel and Taeping may have been faster. The opening of the Suez Canal practically ended the tea races, as it gave steam ships a big advantage over sail. Undaunted, the clippers’ owners put their ships into the Australian wool trade, where there was still a premium rate to be earned by being the first to deliver the new season’s wool clip to Europe. Inevitably, however, steam ships eventually took this trade, and the romantic era of the clippers came to a close.
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