Serica (clipper)

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Career United Kingdom
Builder: Robert Steele & Co., Greenock
Launched: 1863
Out of service: 1872
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 708 NRT
Length: 185 ft. 9 in.
Beam: 31 ft. 1 in.
Draught: 19 ft. 6 in.[1]

The Serica was an extreme clipper ship, built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Co., at Greenock on the south bank of the Clyde, Scotland, for James Findlay. Serica is Latin for "China", and the ship was built expressly for the China tea trade. The Serica participated in the annual "tea races" to bring the new season's crop to London; she won in 1864 and finished second in 1865,[2] and in The Great Tea Race of 1866 came in third, by a matter of hours. On her final voyage under Capt. George Innes, she left Hong Kong bound for Montevideo, 2 November 1872, and was wrecked on the Parcels, in the South China Sea the following day. Out of a crew of twenty-three that manned her, only one survived.

See also

Notes

  1. Bruzelius, Lars (1996-09-02). "Sailing Ships: Serica (1863)". The Maritime History Virtual Archives. http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Clippers/Serica%281863%29.html. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  2. RootsWeb mailing list thread

External links