Deal
Books
- Ninety-Nine Days The Great Tea Race of 1866 and the End of the Clipper Era · Liszt Think
In May 1866, five clippers departed Foochow within three days, chasing a lucrative premium for the first new-season tea to reach London.
- The Premium and the Min River…emium was payable to the first ship to dock, not the first ship to arrive in the Channel. A vessel might reach the Downs, the anchorage off Deal, and still lose the premium if she could not enter the docks before her competitors. The tide mattered. The wind mattered. The pilot’s sche…
- The First Lookout’s Cry…tea merchants were committed to a payment when their tea would sell at a loss. To add to this, the first two tea clippers had signalled off Deal early on the morning of 6 September, followed by a third (Serica) at 1: 00 pm. These three ships would create a glut of new season t…
- The Shipwright’s Response…tances that the 1866 race had seen. No vessel arrived with the damage that had marked that contest. Ariel and Spindrift made the passage to Deal in ninety-seven days. Sir Launcelot followed closely. The times were fast—faster than many pre-1866 passages. But they lacked the dramatic…