拍品專文
Although the name of Maitland is less familiar than those legendary clippers such as Ariel, Taiping and Thermopylae, she was nevertheless a notable vessel dating from the most exciting decade in the history of the China Tea Trade. With owners wanting ever faster ships to bring the new season's tea home as speedily as technology would allow, Maitland was ordered by John Kelso of North Shields and built in William Pile's yard at Sunderland. Despite Pile's earlier success with the doughty Lammermuir of 1856, his yard was not renowned for turning out record-breakers and yet much was expected from Maitland as she approached completion.
Launched on 2 December 1865, she was registered at 799 tons and measured 183 feet in length with a 35 foot beam. Of composite construction, her planks were laid upon iron frames and her considerable beam provided good stability for her large and lofty sail plan. This even included highly unusual moonsails above her standing skysails which simply added to the thoroughbred impression which she gave in a favourable wind. Credited with a speed of 15 knots in 1869, Captain Coulson - her first master - even claimed a mighty 17 knots on her maiden passage but these figures were to prove the exception rather than the rule. However, she still made Hong Kong 87 days out of Sunderland on that first outward run and this resulted in a prime cargo at Foochow when the shippers there heard of it. She returned home in a speedy 104 days, fast but not remarkable, and this was to become characteristic of her performance thereafter.
She survived the striking of the Ariadne Rock when leaving Woosung late in 1868 only by being beached in the nick of time with five feet of water in her hull. Repaired at Shanghai, she was back in service the following year during which she claimed a record run of 22½ hours from Sunderland to the Downs whilst outward and came back home in a creditable 102 days against Thermopylae's cracking 91 days from Foochow to London. Short-lived, like so many of her contemporaries, she was wrecked on a coral reef in the Huon Islands, north of New Caledonia, on 25 May 1874 whilst on passage from Brisbane to China.
Launched on 2 December 1865, she was registered at 799 tons and measured 183 feet in length with a 35 foot beam. Of composite construction, her planks were laid upon iron frames and her considerable beam provided good stability for her large and lofty sail plan. This even included highly unusual moonsails above her standing skysails which simply added to the thoroughbred impression which she gave in a favourable wind. Credited with a speed of 15 knots in 1869, Captain Coulson - her first master - even claimed a mighty 17 knots on her maiden passage but these figures were to prove the exception rather than the rule. However, she still made Hong Kong 87 days out of Sunderland on that first outward run and this resulted in a prime cargo at Foochow when the shippers there heard of it. She returned home in a speedy 104 days, fast but not remarkable, and this was to become characteristic of her performance thereafter.
She survived the striking of the Ariadne Rock when leaving Woosung late in 1868 only by being beached in the nick of time with five feet of water in her hull. Repaired at Shanghai, she was back in service the following year during which she claimed a record run of 22½ hours from Sunderland to the Downs whilst outward and came back home in a creditable 102 days against Thermopylae's cracking 91 days from Foochow to London. Short-lived, like so many of her contemporaries, she was wrecked on a coral reef in the Huon Islands, north of New Caledonia, on 25 May 1874 whilst on passage from Brisbane to China.