2022 marks 150 years since the great Tea Race between the Aberdeen-built clipper Thermopylae and her great rival the Cutty Sark. Curator Jim Inglis sets the scene for a celebration of this historic event to be held at Aberdeen Maritime Museum on Saturday 15 October 2022.
One hundred and fifty years ago Britain’s colonial and commercial empire stretched all around the world. The wealth of nations poured into the small island off the coast of Europe. Just as today, almost all these raw materials and commodities arrived by sea at ports and harbours like Aberdeen or London. Writers such as Joseph Conrad or Robert Louis Stevenson immortalised the period, the people and the vessels which made this possible.
In an age where fortunes could be amassed or lost with the fate of a single ship, it is no surprise that competition was fierce. The skill of captain and crew was central to success. Nowhere was the rivalry more evident than between the vessels and crews who carried the new seasons tea from China to London. To be first vessel in port not only brought fame but also a premium on the price of the cargo. These were the famed ‘Tea Races’.
The heroes and heroines were the fast, slim-hulled Clipper ships. A type of vessel that was originally developed in Aberdeen (as a ‘tax dodge’ but we will swiftly let that pass!).
Possibly the best-known clippers are the Aberdeen-built Thermopylae and the Cutty Sark, launched a year later in 1869. Although the vessels were similar, both performed differently in different weathers. Cutty Sark liked strong following winds, whilst Thermopylae although slightly slower in such conditions was considerably faster in light or even headwinds.
1872 saw both these ships side by side at Woosung, a coastal settlement close to Shanghai, and loaded with tea for the voyage back to London, both departed on the 26th June. Initially, they were neck and neck through the China Sea. Then, Cutty Sark pulled well ahead making the most of the strong winds both vessels then encountered. However, in August, at the Cape of Good Hope, Cutty Sark steered into a storm and lost its rudder. This allowed Thermopylae to overhaul it and make the dash for London arriving there on 12th October 1872, around a week before Cutty Sark, and claim the honours.
The competition between Thermopylae and Cutty Sark was one of the last 'Tea Races'. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 paved the way for steamships to dominate the trade with Asia.
Image: 'Watercolour of the clipper ship Thermopylae', 1886 by J E Cooper
