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Lot Essay
Significant reductions in the customs duty on tea imported into England in 1863 and again in 1865 resulted in the laying down of a whole new generation of classic clipper ships. A number of orders went to the Scottish shipyard of Robert Steele & Co. at Greenock and this yard rose to the challenge by creating some of the fastest of all British clippers, amongst them the celebrated Sir Lancelot. Built for James MacCunn, also of Greenock, and launched in July 1865, she was of composite construction and had the same fine lines as her equally famous sister Ariel. Overall dimensions of the two ships, including a length of 197= feet with a 33= foot beam, were virtually identical although Sir Lancelot's rather conventional deck layout gave her a slightly larger cargo capacity and she could load fully 1,430 tons of tea. Sail plans were also broadly similar and Sir Lancelot could set a vast 32,811 square feet of canvas when running before a fair wind.
Her maiden voyage home from China under the incompetent Captain McDougall in 1866 proved a disaster lasting 126 days, but once under the command of Captain Richard Robinson, Sir Lancelot began to show her mettle. Robinson had made his reputation in the splendid Fiery Cross and despite the inauspicious start to Sir Lancelot's second passage out when she was dismasted off Ushant in December 1866, her new master brought her home from Shanghai in 1867 in excellent time. In 1869, she set a record of 85 days from Foochow to the Lizard, the peninsular in south-west England marking the start of the English Channel, still the fastest passage ever recorded from China to England against the South-West monsoon. Though her total time to docking in London was extended to 89 days by adverse winds in the Channel, it was still the best passage by any ship that year and during the course of it she clocked a remarkable 359 miles on one particularly memorable day.
Re-rigged in 1874 and reduced to a barque in 1877, Sir Lancelot made her last voyage in the tea trade in 1880. After several years of chartering on the Indian coast, MacCunn's eventually sold her to Visram Ibrahim of Bombay in 1886. Afterwards commanded by the highly experienced Eurasian Captain Brebner, she was still widely admired as a thoroughbred and weathered four severe cyclones between 1892 and 1894 without any material damage. In April 1895 she was sold again, this time to Persian owners, and that September, under an Arab captain, she left Muscat bound for Calcutta with a cargo of salt. Caught in another cyclone at the mouth of the Hooghly River, off Calcutta and almost at her destination, she disappeared without trace and was presumed to have foundered on 1st October.
Her maiden voyage home from China under the incompetent Captain McDougall in 1866 proved a disaster lasting 126 days, but once under the command of Captain Richard Robinson, Sir Lancelot began to show her mettle. Robinson had made his reputation in the splendid Fiery Cross and despite the inauspicious start to Sir Lancelot's second passage out when she was dismasted off Ushant in December 1866, her new master brought her home from Shanghai in 1867 in excellent time. In 1869, she set a record of 85 days from Foochow to the Lizard, the peninsular in south-west England marking the start of the English Channel, still the fastest passage ever recorded from China to England against the South-West monsoon. Though her total time to docking in London was extended to 89 days by adverse winds in the Channel, it was still the best passage by any ship that year and during the course of it she clocked a remarkable 359 miles on one particularly memorable day.
Re-rigged in 1874 and reduced to a barque in 1877, Sir Lancelot made her last voyage in the tea trade in 1880. After several years of chartering on the Indian coast, MacCunn's eventually sold her to Visram Ibrahim of Bombay in 1886. Afterwards commanded by the highly experienced Eurasian Captain Brebner, she was still widely admired as a thoroughbred and weathered four severe cyclones between 1892 and 1894 without any material damage. In April 1895 she was sold again, this time to Persian owners, and that September, under an Arab captain, she left Muscat bound for Calcutta with a cargo of salt. Caught in another cyclone at the mouth of the Hooghly River, off Calcutta and almost at her destination, she disappeared without trace and was presumed to have foundered on 1st October.