FAMOUS SHIPS

THE "LEANDER "

The Leander was rated as one of the six fastest China clippers ever built. She was designed by the same naval architect, Bernard Waymouth, as the Thermopylae. The Leander was launched in September, 1867 with the following vital statistics:

    Tons gross: 886
    Tons net:   848
    Length:     210 feet
    Breadth:     35 feet, 2 inches
    Depth:       20 feet, 7 inches

With respect to the sail plan, she was a riggers dream and/or nightmare, depending on you affinity for rigging. One of the old pictures of Leander shows her carrying no less than 45 sails, including stunsails on both sides of the fore and main, a Jimmy Green under the bowsprit, a ring-tail abaft the spanker, a save-all under the spanker-boom and three skysails crossed on all of her masts.

The Leander was a pet ship, built for Joseph Somes by Lawrie, of Glasgow, and was known as “Somes’s yacht.” He spent plenty of money on his favorite ship keeping her smart and shipshape. He also gave his captains plenty of license in upkeep and the smart appearance of the ship. In the heyday of the tea races the big firms at Hong Kong and Shanghai entertained like princes, and the captains were not even a little behind them in this action. Champagne luncheons were a common occurrence aboard the China clippers. One of the most notorious givers of champagne lunches and other festivities was Petherick, the first skipper of the Leander.

On her maiden voyage she made the passage to Shanghai in 96 days. She was too early for the new teas, so she went to Foochow in order to load poles, a very usual intermediate passage for a tea clipper which was early on the coast. Captain Petherick was so festive, however, that he was late leaving Foochow and tried to take a short cut in the channel of Min. This passage was so narrow that nobody used it and Leander stuck fast on a rocky ledge. The ship was kedged off with some loss of false keel and a few sheets of copper that had to be repaired when she reached Shanghai. This spoiled her chance to load first among the crack clippers. Even though he missed his chance to be among the first tea clippers of the season, he still made the best passage from Shanghai of 109 days out that season.

On her second tea passage Leander was selected as one of the first ships for the new teas by the Foochow shippers, but her chances were ruined by a miscalculation in her ballasting. She was thus not in her right trim. She still made an excellent run of 103 days, however.

The third voyage was Petherick’s last. The passage out to Shanghai was 106 days from London. Leander loaded 1,137,000 lbs. of tea at Shanghai, sailing on October 12th and reaching Deal on January 17th, 97 days out. This was the best trip of the year, none of the other clippers making the run in less than 100 days. Captain Knight took over command in 1871 and reached Hong Kong 95 days out. From 1871 to 1878 Leander made seven tea passages. Six of these were from Woosung to New York. All these passages were very steady and rarely exceeded 100 days.

The Leander had many close encounters with another ship, the Hallowe’en. For some reason, these two ships kept running into each other and raced each other over the same seas. In 1873, the Leander had her first experience running the easting down to Australia, which was not pleasant. At one point, on May 23rd, she was scudding under a reefed main topsail, fore sail, fore lower topsail, and fore topmast staysail, before a fierce west south-west gale, with a terrific sea blanketing her canvas as it rolled up astern. At last an extra heavy sea came along, and breaking high over the rail, smashed the wheel to staves, and broke the thigh of one of the helmsmen. Captain Knight had hardly got his ship under control when another tremendous greybeard rolled aboard over the port quarter, heeling Leander over until her starboard dead-eyes were dipped. She was a sturdy ship, however, and with tons of water on her deck, she swept her spars to port. Unfortunately, two men were caught in the rushing water, which poured across her main deck, and were swept overboard and drowned.

The Leander was nearly lost on November 16th, 1880, when she ran ashore near Port Phillip Heads, knocked away about 15 feet of her false keel, and had several sheets of copper torn off by the rocks. She was so well built that she withstood this hard treatment and came back for more. As a result of this type of hard usage, she was dry-docked at Shanghai in September 1882, her bottom caulked and re-sheathed, and a new rudder fitted.

Captain Hamilton took over command from Captain Knight in the eighties. Leanders passages for the next five years were very good, ranging from 104 to 119 days out. By 1886 every other clipper had been ousted from the tea trade, but both Hallowe’en and Leander managed to load at Foochow. This was Hallowe’en’s last voyage, however, as she went ashore at Sewer Mill Lands, Salcombe. This Leander lost her chum ship, as she found out when she arrived in the Thames.

At this date the Leander was owned by R. Anderson, of London, Joseph Somes having long since passed away. Anderson continued to run her until the beginning of the nineties, when he sold her to Ajum Goolam Ossen, of Port Louis, Mauritius. She was then converted to a barque, and for the next few years, with the Sir Lancelot, traded between Bombay, Calcutta and Mauritius.

On April 29th, 1892, the Leander was stranded and knocked about in a bad Mauritius cyclone. Lloyd’s report stated that she dragged her stern moorings, grounded in 11 feet of water, had her stern stove in, gangway cut down to the waterways, mizen mast damaged, and a boat smashed, but she was not leaking, and would float as soon as she was lightened. In 1895 Leander was sold to seyed Youssouf bin Ahmed Zuwawee, of Muscat, for the salt trade from Muscat to India. Three years later she was owned by another Arab, Hadji Abdul Rahman bin Mahomed Cazim of Linga. Finally, in 1901, when she was owned by a Persian, named Hadji Ali bin Johur, this beautiful little clipper ship was broken up.

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