RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d The Hankow Steamer Tea Races 47 at around £7.7.0. and £6.10.0, a ton. She left Hankow on 20th May at 1.20 p.m., passed the Red Buoy at 6.35 p.m. on 22nd May and the Tungsha lightship at 2 a.m. on 23rd May. She arrived in Singapore at 10.30 p.m. on 28th May, loaded 1,600 tons of coal and left at 9 a.m. on 29th May. She was reported at Gravesend on 22nd June and docked in London shortly thereafter. A lengthy discussion broke out on whether or not difference in time should be accounted for. With the difference, the trip from Tungsha Lightship to Gravesend took 30 days, 2 hours and 36 minutes. Neglecting the 8-hour difference, the time was 29 days, 18 and a half hours. The "Glen" vessels were out of the race that year as their new vessel Glenogle arrived in Hankow too late. However, she loaded a full cargo of some 5,206 tons of tea at £4 per ton and went home on a consumption of 37 tons of coal at 14 knots, although she was claimed to be capable of 16 knots on 120 tons of coal a day. In 1883 Glenogle loaded 4,900 tons at £4.10.0, and left Hankow on 20th May at 11.30 a.m. Sterling Castle loaded at £5.10.0 and left on 22nd May at 3.15 a.m. after loading 5,000 tons. Glenogle passed Woosung on the evening of 22nd while Sterling Castle passed on the afternoon of 23rd. At Singapore, Sterling Castle arrived at 1 p.m. on 29th May and Glenogle at 2.30 p.m. on the same day. They both left Singapore at about the same time early on 30th May, after loading 1,800 tons and 1,600 tons of coal respectively. Sterling Castle arrived at Suez on 12th June and at Gravesend at noon on 22nd June. Glenogle arrived at Gravesend at 3 p.m. on 26th June or 291/4 days from the Tungsha lightship, which was faster than in 1882. 1884 saw a revival of “Glen” supremacy as Sterling Castle had been sold to Italian interests. Glenogle carried the flag. She left Hankow at 6 a.m. on 18th May after loading 5,300 tons of tea at £5 per ton, and the Red Buoy, Woosung at 4 p.m. on the 20th May. She arrived at Singapore at 11.15 a.m. on 27th, loaded 1,500 tons of coal and left at 6 p.m. on the same day. She arrived in London on 26th June after a somewhat slow trip, largely occasioned by losing a blade from a propeller 280 miles from Singapore. Later races were between "Glen" vessels and the China Mutual vessels Oopack and Moyune, but the speeds were lower and the China tea trade itself had passed its zenith. In 1885 the fastest vessels had been requisitioned by the British Government as armed merchant cruisers owing to a war scare with Russia. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 48 T. J. LINDSAY One point that shows up in the accounts is the speed of coaling at Singapore. In 1880 Glencoe loaded 1,130 tons in 103 hours, in 1882 Sterling Castle 1,600 tons in 10 hours, in 1884 Glenogle 1,500 tons in 62 hours. Moyune 700 tons in 5 hours in 1887 as against Glenogle 1,200 tons in 5 hours in the same year. The “Glen" figures of 220 tons an hour in 1884 and 240 tons in 1887 are remarkable. What of the conditions in these ships racing home? The stoke-hold must have been almost unbearable, so it is no wonder that difficulties with the stokers were reported. In 1882 there was trouble culminating in Singapore when a stoker of Glenogle struck the Chief Engineer. When a European shore policeman came on board the 31 stokers threatened but the policeman "took his stand in the most daring manner and fairly cowed the men by his determined demeanour". At Hankow, too, there was trouble in 1883 when some of Glenogle's crew were reported to have mutinied and the Navy had to be called in to deal with the situation. Passengers, too, had something to complain of. On one occasion in Singapore when two or three passengers had been granted conditional passages they found the saloon and every state-cabin crammed with tea. Conditions in the China tea trade were about to change. In 1881 the North China Daily News wrote: “It is not so many years since China was the only tea producing country. It was sufficient then for the buyer to watch the deliveries at home and the export from China, to be guided, with little chance of error, in his operations. But the fatal energy of our race has reared up in British India a frightful rival to the Flowery Land, and India not only demoralises China by sending opium here, but demoralises our tea markets by sending tea in increasingly enormous quantities to London. There are no squeezing Mandarins in India, there is European supervision in packing and the firing of the leaf, and the plantations are connected with civilization by the railway and the telegraph. Everything is done to give India an unfair advantage over China. Java is competing too, and Ceylon is threatening. As yet Indian tea is hardly taken on the continent of Europe at all, but here too it will penetrate sooner or later, as it is doing into America and Australia, and then there will be no corner of the earth where the sway of China tea will be undisputed.” ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 50 T. J. LINDSAY had been borne out by facts. We have also drawn attention to the improbability that magnificent vessels like the Sterling Castle could be run all the year round on the London and China line, and yet show satisfactory returns. "To the Blue-Funnel steamer owners belong the credit of being the first to venture upon a big steamer-carrying enterprise to this part of the world; at that time, when the finest sailing vessels in the world had to be competed with on the Cape route, economy was of more importance than speed. "With the ever-recurring annual race Home with Teas came the renewed desire to be first in point of time; and for several years the red-funnelled "Glens” had it all their own way, until last year, when the fast and powerful Sterling Castle appeared on the scene and reduced the previous time records by a third. Both here and at Home the Sterling has evoked the admiration of all classes, and she has been freely spoken of as the fastest merchant steamer afloat, although, until she is tried against the Atlantic liners on their own route, it can hardly be said that she is the strongest and most powerful yet built. "The latest boat built for the Glen line [the Glenogle] is a vessel the like of which is seldom seen. She is certainly the largest carrying vessel that has ever been on the line, and for power she may be fairly set down as second to her Castle rival. While the Sterling has an indicated horse-power of 8,000 and the Glenogle indicates only 6,000 horse, the Glen steamer carries 6,000 tons of measurement cargo - a capacity which is greater than the Castle steamer, owing to the much larger space occupied in the more powerful vessel by the inevitable boilers and bunkers. In the important test which is applied to such coal-consuming giants, of running a moderate speed upon a reduced consumption of coal, the Glenogle appears to have fully realised all anticipations. At her full speed it is stated she consumes 120 tons of coal per day (she has bunker capacity for 1598 tons or 133 days) with her four boilers going, and her extreme speed is, say 16 knots, while she has accomplished an average speed of 11½ knots upon a consumption of 37 tons per day. The extreme speed of the Sterling Castle, which may be put down at 19 knots under the most favourable circumstances, is obtained by the daily consumption of 150 tons of coal; but how far the speed and consumption can be modified, we are yet unable to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d THE HANKOW STEAMER TEA RACES 51 say with any degree of accuracy, although probably one-third of this consumption would drive her about 12 knots an hour. On the principle that, while 100 horse-power would drive a steamship ten knots an hour, it would require 1,000 horse-power to propel her at the rate of twenty knots (all other conditions being in proportion), it will be seen that Mr. Macgregor's grounds and conditions for accelerated speed are not only reasonable but indispensable: the few last knots always the most expensive, and apparently almost prohibitive. "Indeed, the present tendency seems to be towards a falling-off in the inclination to pay for such acceleration, so far as Tea freights are concerned: but time will show. Last year [1881] the slowing down of the three Glens was positive proof that the desire for fast passages had declined; and the projected telegraph to Hankow may possibly materially interfere with high freights for the future. In face of these facts, it appears clear that the large capacity of the Glenogle is a decided advantage. The Glenogle took Home this year 5,206 tons of Tea and 185 tons of miscellaneous cargo; and when she left London a few weeks ago she carried 4,022 tons of general merchandise to China; that is, she has taken into London and brought back to the East the largest cargoes that have been carried in one bottom since the opening of the China trade." J Events soon proved the soundness of the view taken by the China Mail's contributor. [Plates 1 and 2 illustrate this article]. NOTES The material has been obtained from articles in contemporary newspapers in the library of the Supreme Court, Hong Kong mainly the Hong Kong Telegraph and the China Mail, which also quoted from many other newspapers in the area. Grateful thanks are given to Messrs. Alfred Holt & Co. for their permission to use this material which was sent to them and formed the basis of an article in their House Magazine. The contemporary account has a vividness which is often lacking in the more formal history. Quotation is therefore used to give light to the story. No attempt is made to deal more than superficially with the events and there are gaps in the information provided. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 52 T. J. LINDSAY TABLE I TIME TAKEN HANKOW TO LONDON Year Vessel Transit Time 1870 Erl King ... 1871 Enterprise 61 days 1872 Deccan 56 1873 Venetia 50 1874 Glenartney 50 1875 Glenartney 49 1876 Glenartney 46 1877 Loudon Castle 46 1878 Gleneagles 41 1879 Glencoe 40 1880 Glencoe 40 1881 Glencoe 38 1882 Sterling Castle 39 1883 Sterling Castle 32 1884 Glenogle 31 1885 Glengarry 37 1886 Glenogle 45 1887 Moyunc 37 Sources: 1870-1879 China Mail 1880 3. 7. 1879 24. 8. 1880 1881 19, 7. 1881 1882 Hong Kong Telegraph 28. 6. 1882 1883 3. 7. 1883 1884 North China Daily News 21. 7. 1884 1885 China Mail 8. 7. 1885 1886 5. 7. 1886 1887 4. 8. 1887 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d Freight Year Vessel Rate Per Cargo Carried Vessel Space Ton. Freight Rate Per Space Ton. 1879 Afghan Feronia Fleurs Castle Hankow Lord of the Isles Loudon Castle £6/-/- Glenartney £5/- Glencoe 6/- Malabar Orestes Glenearn 4/- 1880 Achilles Afghan 3/5 - Glenartney Glencoe Breconshire Cargo Carried 54 T. J. LINDSAY 51-1- 6/10/- 4100 (space) 1355 weight Cairnsmuir Galley of Lorne Glamis Castle ... 3/- 3/- 3/- 3/- Glenearn 4/- 1- Hankow 3/-/- Hesperia Loudon Castle 3/5 1 5/10/- 3675 (space) 1225 weight 1881 Afghan Hesperia 3573 (space) Fermia Loudon Castle 51-1- 1191 weight Glencoe Glenfruin 6/- / 5/-/- Sikh 3/10/- Triumph 3951 (space) 3/10/- 1317 weight 1882 Afghan Hankow 3/-/- Breconshire Carnarvonshire ... 3/- Sikh 37- Sterling Castle 6/10/- Fleurs Castle 31- Glencoe 4/- 4400 (space) Glenfruin 4/-/- 5206 (space) Glenogle 4/-/- 1719 weight 1883 Belgic Albany 2/10/- Glenogle £4/10/- 4500 (space) 3/-/- Hesperia Gaelic 3/-/- Loudon Castle 3/-/- Glencoe 3/10/- Sikh 2/10/- Glenfruin 3/-/- Sterling Castle 5/10/- 5350 (space) Triumph ... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d Freight Year Vessel Rate Per Space Ton. Cargo Carried Vessel 1884 Albany £3/-/- Glengarry Ben Alder 3/-/- Glenlyon Freight Rate Per Space Ton. £3/-/- 3/-/- Bothwell Castle 3/-/- Glenogle Chasze 3/-/- Glencoe 3/-/- Glenelg 3/10/- Glenfruin 3/-/- 1885 Aberdeen Afghan 1/5/- Oopack Patna Port Philip Sikh Glenfalloch Glenfruin 3/10/- 3/-/- 2 Benlarig 1/10/- Glengarry 3/10/- Benvenue 2/5/- Glenroy 2/-/- Bothwell Castle Oopack 3/-/- Cyclops 2/5/- Pathan 1/10/- Pembrokeshire 1886 Benlarig 3/10/- Glenearn 3/10/- Bothwell Castle Glenfinlas Denbighshire Glenogle 3/10/- 4/-/- Glamorganshire Kaisow 3/10/- Ningchow Titan 1887 Aberdeen Glamorganshire 3/10/- Andrises Benlavers 3/10/- 3/10/- Glenfruin Glenorchy Benvenue Glenogle 3/15/- Bothwell Castle Carmarthenshire Moyune Ningchow Stentor Cargo Carried 5300 (space) THE HANKOW STEAMER TEA RACES 55 Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d Plate 2. 5.s. "Glenogle" By permission of Glen Line Limited. ================================================================================