Zephyr (schooner)

History
United States
Name:	Zephyr
Owner:	Russell & Company
Builder:	Samuel Hall, East Boston
Launched:	April 12, 1842
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	150 tons
Sail plan:	Topsail schooner
Armament:	Four brass 18-pounders, a brass 18-pounder pivot gun, and an Armstrong 68-pounder

Last updated January 21, 2021

Zephyr was an 1842 opium clipper built by Samuel Hall, East Boston that was known for its speed.

Zephyr, Brenda, Mazeppa, Ariel, and the brig Antelope were among Russell & Companys fastest opium clippers, and enabled the company to almost control the opium trade with China.^[1]

The Zephyr was built by Samuel Hall, of East Boston, on the American pilot boat model. Though lightly built, like most American ships, of American oak and elm, she was beautifully modelled and very heavily sparred ; and she carried an armament of four brass 18-pounders to a broadside, a brass 18-pounder pivot gun on the foc's'le, also of brass, and, in her prime, an Armstrong 68-pounder on a pivot between the masts.^[2]Zephyr was "built as a yacht to the order of Daniel Burn of Canton" and Captain R. B. Forbes.^[3] Launched April 12, 1842, she sailed on her first passage to China on May 15, 1842 under Captain Thomas M. Johnson, arriving 112 days later.^[3]

Captain Thomas M. Johnson, wrote to Forbes in 1843:

" The Zephyr is now in the Taypa with loss of main boom, fore-gaff, and jib. I was caught off the Grand Ladrone in a gale at north-east. She did well till the jib was lost, and we beat from the Ladrone to here under double-reefed sails and storm jib quicker than anything in China could have done it. None of the vessels I have met could beat her. On the wind I do believe there is not anything that can beat her. When in ballast she is as dry as any of them. In smooth water, on the wind, her equal is not to be found in China or elsewhere, in my opinion. Properly ballasted she is the easiest vessel I was ever aboard of.^[2]

During the Taiping Rebellion the opium clipper Eamont ran up to the threatened city of Ningpo, passing right through the Battle of Chinhae, which was being waged not only on the banks but in the river itself. At Ningpo she found the Zephyr. The two schooners loaded up with fugitive celestials, and raced each other back to Woosung. But in the smooth sheltered water of the river, and with a fresh whole sail breeze, the Zephyr more than a match for the more strongly built Cowes schooner. However, the Eamont had her revenge in weather more to her choice. The two vessels met this time in half a gale of wind with a heavy sea running, and the Eamont sailed right dead to windward of the Zephyr, and left her out of sight in twelve hours.^[4]

Related Research Articles

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Ariel was a clipper ship famous for making fast voyages between China and England in the late 1860s. She is most famous for almost winning The Great Tea Race of 1866, an unofficial race between Foochow, China and London with the first tea crop of the 1866 season.

Sir Lancelot was a clipper ship which sailed in the China trade and the India-Mauritius trade.

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Sylph was a clipper ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong-based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849.

The schooner Anglona was the first American opium clipper. She sailed in the Chinese coastal trade in the 1840s, and had a famous race with the schooner Ariel around Lintin Island.

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<i>Wylo</i> (clipper) Scottish composite clipper

Wylo a composite clipper was built by Robert Steele & Company, Greenock, and launched on 15 April 1869. Robert Steele & Company also built the famous clippers Ariel and Taeping who took part in the great tea race of 1866, and Sir Lancelot another renown clipper ship.

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References

↑ State Street Trust Company. Some ships of the clipper ship era, their builders, owners, and captains. A glance at an interesting phase of the American merchant marine so far as it relates to Boston. Boston: Walton Advertising and Printing Company. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
1 2 Lubbock, Basil (1914). The China clippers (2nd ed.). Glasgow: James Brown & Son. pp. 23–25. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
1 2 Lubbock, Basil (1933). The Opium Clippers. Boston, MA: Charles E. Lauriat Co. p. 238.
↑ Lubbock (1914), p. 34

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : State Street Trust Company. Some ships of the clipper ship era, their builders, owners, and captains. A glance at an interesting phase of the American merchant marine so far as it relates to Boston. Boston: Walton Advertising and Printing Company. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lubbock, Basil (1914). The China clippers (2nd ed.). Glasgow: James Brown & Son. Retrieved 2013-03-23.

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[1] State Street Trust Company. Some ships of the clipper ship era, their builders, owners, and captains. A glance at an interesting phase of the American merchant marine so far as it relates to Boston. Boston: Walton Advertising and Printing Company. Retrieved 2013-03-23.

[chinaclippers-2] 1 2 Lubbock, Basil (1914). The China clippers (2nd ed.). Glasgow: James Brown & Son. pp. 23–25. Retrieved 2013-03-23.

[lubbock-3] 1 2 Lubbock, Basil (1933). The Opium Clippers. Boston, MA: Charles E. Lauriat Co. p. 238.

[4] Lubbock (1914), p. 34

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