拍品专文
Generally acknowledged as the finest-lined clipper to emanate from Robert Steele's yards at Greenock, Titania was built to the order of Lowther, Maxton & Co. of London in 1866. Registered in London at 879 tons, she measured 200 feet in length with a 36 foot beam, and these dimensions gave her the strength to carry a large sail plan aided by masts of steel plate. No expense was spared to fit her out and she was beautifully finished, yet her first two voyages proved disappointing as it became apparent that her master, Captain Deas, had lost his nerve due to advancing age. He had made his reputation with Ganges in the early 1850's, but Titania was an altogether different type of thoroughbred and Deas no longer had the temperament to drive her as she deserved.
Her maiden passage out to China began badly when she lost her foremast in a squall off the Cape Verde Islands but, after repairing in Rio, she loaded her first tea in August and was home in 115 days having left Shanghai on 2 September to dock in London on Boxing Day. The next year's voyage was slower - 126 days - with the result that her owners replaced Captain Deas with W.H. Burgoyne who immediately transformed her performance. Clearing Shanghai on 16 June 1869, he raced Titania home in 98 days in one of the fastest passages of the season. After two years Burgoyne was succeeded by Captain Dowdy and he was similarly successful, bringing Titania home in 93 days, Foochow to London, in 1871 in the best passage of her career.
After a serious dismasting in 1874, she was sold out of the Lowther, Maxton fleet but continued trading to both Australia and the Far East until she was bought by the Hydson's Bay Company at the end of 1885. In nine years with them she made regular voyages around Cape Horn and across the South Atlantic before being sold to Italian owners in 1894 who put her on their Mauritius and South American trade. Worn out and not considered worthy of major overhaul, she was broken up at Marseilles March 1910. It was a mundane end for a splendid ship yet she had the satisfaction fo outliving virtually all of her more famous contemporaries from the golden era of the China Tea trade.
Her maiden passage out to China began badly when she lost her foremast in a squall off the Cape Verde Islands but, after repairing in Rio, she loaded her first tea in August and was home in 115 days having left Shanghai on 2 September to dock in London on Boxing Day. The next year's voyage was slower - 126 days - with the result that her owners replaced Captain Deas with W.H. Burgoyne who immediately transformed her performance. Clearing Shanghai on 16 June 1869, he raced Titania home in 98 days in one of the fastest passages of the season. After two years Burgoyne was succeeded by Captain Dowdy and he was similarly successful, bringing Titania home in 93 days, Foochow to London, in 1871 in the best passage of her career.
After a serious dismasting in 1874, she was sold out of the Lowther, Maxton fleet but continued trading to both Australia and the Far East until she was bought by the Hydson's Bay Company at the end of 1885. In nine years with them she made regular voyages around Cape Horn and across the South Atlantic before being sold to Italian owners in 1894 who put her on their Mauritius and South American trade. Worn out and not considered worthy of major overhaul, she was broken up at Marseilles March 1910. It was a mundane end for a splendid ship yet she had the satisfaction fo outliving virtually all of her more famous contemporaries from the golden era of the China Tea trade.