Dan Snow's History Hit - The Greatest Tea Race of the Victorian Age

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

2/4. With towering masts and billowing sails, the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae raced neck and neck through relentless waves to be the first to arrive in London with their tea shipment from Shanghai. The first ship back could claim the highest price for its cargo. Dan is joined by Senior Archivist at Lloyd's Register Foundation Max Wilson for a dramatic blow-by-blow account of this high-stakes race that gripped Victorians in the late summer of 1872, where fortunes were made and lost by the hour. This is episode 2 of our mini-series 'Ships that Made the British Empire' that tells four stories of ships that have shaped Britain and its maritime history, from the trade that kickstarted the global food chain to the technology that revolutionised our ability to conquer the seas.You can find out more about Lloyd's Register Foundation, its history and its work that supports research, innovation and education to help the global community tackle the most pressing safety and risk challenges. Just go to https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore. Peta Stamper is the production manager and Beth Donaldson is the production coordinator for the series 'Ships that Made the British Empire'.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [e-mail] can take part in our listener survey here.

The port of Shanghai, 1872. It's a bustling hub of trade, following the bloody and humiliating opium wars between China and Britain and its Western allies. After defeating those wars, China's been forced to open its ports to foreign traders. Business booms as merchants from Britain satisfy the demands of Victorians who wanted to furnish their homes with porcelain and silk and sip tea. For decades, the import of tea had been solely the business of the East India Company.

But by now, in 1872, the trade is open to anyone with the entrepreneurial nous and the money to build and fit out a ship that can handle a 16,000-mile journey from Shanghai to London. This means there's fierce competition. Crews race each other across the world. On this day in Shanghai, there are two British ships, two T-clippers. They're said to be the fastest in the world. On this day in Shanghai, there are two British ships, two tea clippers. They're said to be the fastest in the world. They're still made fast to the wharves as men lug chests of the finest Chinese tea aboard and stow them in the hold to be taken back and drunk by

the thirsty Victorian public. They are Cutty Sark and Thermopylae. Both are about to embark on one of the greatest races in maritime history. Whoever makes it back to Britain first can command the highest price for the first tea shipment of the season. These two clippers are going to go head to head. They can traverse some of the world's most dangerous stretches of water. They're going to make their way through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, up the skeleton coast of Southern Africa, and across the Atlantic.

Who will be hailed as the fastest, and at what cost? You're listening to Dan Snow's History Hit, and this is episode two of our mini-series, Ships That Made the British Empire, in collaboration with Lloyd's Register Foundation, whose archive holds the history of these mighty ships that changed Britain and the world. This is the story of the greatest tea race of the Victorian age. I'm walking along a narrow aisle on either side there's a great steel box of shelving and on that shelving there are cardboard boxes filled with wonderful documents. I'm in the

archive of Lloyd's Register. I'm here with Max Wilson. Hi Max, how's it going? Yeah very well thanks. You as senior archivist know the secrets of these boxes better than anybody else. First of all how big is this archive? So this archive, our ship plan and survey report collection, or our marine technical collection, numbers about 1.15 million catalogued and digitised records. The thing that people are really most interested in are the ship plans. So we have about just under 100,000 ship plans.

So we have vessels like the Dunedin, like the Mauritania, and then lots of other ones like these ones here, the Thermopylae and the Cutty Sark. You've got the ship plans. Are these ones laid out on this huge table? Yes. Hang on, let's walk over here. Be still my beating heart. So what we've got here, for those of you listening at home, is a bigger than A3 piece of paper, bigger than A3 piece of paper, hand drawn, individually coloured, beautifully annotated plans of Cutty Sark, the most important and famous sailing cargo vessel ever launched. And it's got minute detail, look at this.

Oh my goodness. Every single rope. And there are miles of rope on board. There are, there are. So Lloyd's registers had this really long relationship with Cutty Sark. So just in front of you, you have the survey report, the very first time she's documented, which includes who owns it, where she's going, what the details are. And there are so many moving parts on a vast

sailing ship and each one of them is labelled on here. Those are joyful plans for a vessel. And you've mentioned the Thermopylae, we're here to talk about Cutty Sark versus Thermopylae, the greatest race of the Victorian age. Certainly up there. All right, Max, let's get into it. So, Max, we come down to your office. Obviously, senior archivist, you'd expect nothing less. It is lined with leather-bound books. Let's talk about this extraordinary race. And I suppose let's start with the political background, the strategic background. Why is there this flourishing trade in tea between China and Britain? So the rivalry between the clipper ships sort of first begins in about 1834,

when the East India Company loses this trade monopoly with China. So previous to that, only the East India Company was allowed to bring in tea to the UK? Pretty much. Although there is obviously this really widespread smuggling problem as well, which is sort of democratising tea drinking to the masses. But now it's free trade, so anyone can get involved. Absolutely. So in 1842, we have the Treaty of Nanking between Britain and China, which is the first of these unequal treaties. And it's signed at the conclusion of the first opium war.

And so the Chinese today remain furious about this. They regard this as the Brits have defeated the opium war. They're forcing Chinese markets open. Well, they're forcing opium into China. Absolutely. They're forcing these Chinese ports to give concessions to European merchants, traders, and settlers in these designated treaty ports. And the Brits get a taste for tea. They do. So the demand in tea grows across Europe, notably so in the United Kingdom. So these merchants and traders quickly realise that the very first ships to get back to Britain each

season can charge this far higher premium for this commodity. And it's so lucrative that this premium is written into the bills of lading for these ships as an incentive for the masters and crews to be the first ones back to London each year. So they get a bonus if they win the race? They absolutely do. Okay. And so I didn't know that. So tea is kind of seasonal. And so there'd be times in Britain where there'd be a tea drought. You wouldn't be able to drink any tea. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so it's these annual contests which spring out as a result of this that really capture the national attention. And it's really hard not to understate how widely anticipated

and sort of the great excitement around these. You know, 70% of all tea in Britain at this point is coming from China. The wonderful thing is the first news you have, there's no GPS, you're not tracking them. It's just when their topsails appear over the horizon. It's such an exciting moment. This trade is so lucrative at this point. You know, a ship like the Cutty Sark is capable of carrying

about 10,000 tea chests, which is the equivalent today each voyage of about £6 million. So there's a huge amount of money at stake. So is it the need for speed that starts to create ships like Cutty Sark? Is Cutty Sark built for that run? Yeah, so traditional merchant ships are really able to complete this run from China in about four to five months. But this is too slow to really able to complete this run from China in about four to five months. But this is too slow to really take advantage of this premium. So what we start to see

from the mid-19th century is the emergence of these purpose-built, sleek but strong clipper ships that can be driven at these unprecedented speeds. They have the strength of these iron frames, but they have the flexibility of their wooden planking. And they're soon known as the greyhounds of the seas. And is there an arms race? I mean, just individual boat builders and merchants just build them and try and out-compete each other? Absolutely. You know, there's a fierce competition between the builders, between the merchants, and between the ship's crews themselves, because these reports of the progress are, you know, very, very highly anticipated, and they're publicised by the press.

And what sort of members of the public would get into it? This was something that people were all aware of. Absolutely. There were odds laid by the bookies on the results of these tea races. And the traders and the wholesalers would specifically market their tea with the name of the ship that had carried their cargo. So as you can imagine, if you're the master or the crew on that particular ship, that's an enormous sort of reputational boost for you. And I bet you got occasions where the crew would get poached or must get poached like staff football players today moving from club to club. Oh absolutely. This also proves to be a test of the design, it's the quality of the construction of these clippers, you know, it's a real demonstration

of the skills of these masters and crews. To talk about this fierce competition, despite these really long distances over these thousands of miles and the turbulent weathers and the differences and designs the margins of winning can be incredibly tight for the tea race what are we talking so i suppose the most famous tea race comes in 1866 and it's another clip of the typing she completes her voyage a 14 000 mile long voyage voyage from China to London, just 28 minutes ahead of the aerial. You're kidding. And the third ship after that, the Serica, arrives just an hour after the second ship aerial. That is ridiculous. This causes such a dispute between all these clipper ships and the merchants and the traders that they all agree to share this premium,

you know, this bill of lading. That's very civilised. So we've got Cutty Sark, which is launched just after that epic race. We look back on it, as we discussed in the last podcast, as the record holder. But she had a nemesis as well, didn't she? The Thermopylae. The Thermopylae is another composite clipper that rivals the Cutty Sark. And she's built by Walter Hood & Co. for the Aberdeen White Star Line. So she's, again, another really sleek, three-masted, square-rigged vessel. So she measures about 946 registered tonnes.

She's 210 feet in overall length. And she's launched in August of 1868, you know, with this copper-sheeted hull, with an Elm antique outside planking. And she's typically got this sort of green livery as well. So she's very recognisable on the high seas. But George Thompson, the line's owner, this is a bit of an outlay for him. This is a bit of a sort of a departure from their usual shipbuilding. And so he's very keen on outstripping the competition for the T-Trade with one of these new composite clipper ships that he's heard about. And so Thermopylae is designed by LR's then senior surveyor, Bernard Weymouth,

who later becomes a very big part of Lloyd's Register's story as the secretary. And he's obviously a very respected naval architect, and he designs a number of these different ships. So he designs the Leander, another composite clipper ship in 1867, and the Thermopylae in 1868. And then, even though he's a Lloyd's Register guy, presumably Lloyd's Register have to go and mark his homework, do they? Despite being the senior surveyor at this point, he still has to adhere to all the same rules and regulations.

And so when she's finally constructed under a special survey, so she's surveyed throughout her construction, she is then surveyed by William Wallace at the Aberdeen Survey Office. And she enters a class with the mark of 17A1, which really indicates that she's a really outstanding quality of materials and construction. Doesn't get any better than A1. All right. And so is she quick? She is. So she is launched. And really, her maiden voyage is what really captures the international attention. She sails from Gravesend and the Thames Estuary to Melbourne in just 63 days, which is a world record that still stands to this day for a vessel under sail.

No way. And it really raises eyebrows. That is stunning, isn't it? Okay, so Thermopylae is a world record holder. Cuddy Sark, we know, is going to be super fast. So they compete with each other in a tea race, do they? They certainly do, yeah. And the thing about the tea race is that it's a competition between these builders, the merchants and the masters and the crews, and they are attracting the best captains and crews,

not only because of this prize money, but also because of the prestige and honour of being the first one back to Britain and back to London in the races. They must have pushed themselves so hard. And actually, what I learned going aboard Cutty Sark is how small the crews were. The numbers of crew members does tend to alter from line to line and from voyage to voyage, especially when they're trying to maximise profits. But by 1872, there are sort of real concerted efforts to reduce the numbers of crew members.

To try and cut costs and compete with, I guess, these new generations. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, the Cutty Sark by by this point, consists of about 26 crew members in total. That's astonishing how hard they've had to push themselves if they're basically racing the whole way back from China with that small number of crew. Terrifying. Who are the captains? Let's line them up.

So in Thermopylae, her very first captain is Robert Kemble, an Englishman from Suffolk. He's the captain of the Thermopylae from 1868 to 1874. So he is a very experienced commander and he really gains a name for himself as the master of another clipper ship, the Yanktse, in 1867. So he's very firm, but he's well-liked by his crew and he has this nickname, Pylon Kemble. Meanwhile, who's in charge of Cutty Sark? Meanwhile, who's in charge of Cutty Sark? So Cutty Sark's captain is also the very first person to command her.

So it's the Scot George Moody. And so he's again another formidable commander. He'd been the master of a number of other Jock Willis ships and was selected to oversee the building of Cutty Sark and actually also escorted her down on her passage from Dumbarton to London. So both of these commanders, you know, they're very, very competitive. And it's worth making the point that in 1872, when they load for the tea race, Kemble loads 200,000 pounds less tea to maximise his speed, and Moody loads just 20,000 pounds. And the only reason that he doesn't unload more is because the shipping line owner's

brother is on board and is telling him that he's not to do that. So as you can see, they're sacrificing their cargo carrying capacity and their profits for the sake of the race. I'd be furious if I was the shipbuilder. It turns out the sailors just wanted to have a huge race and didn't take any cargo at all. That's classic. Yeah, it's incredibly serious. This reputation seems to actually be, by this point, take the precedence over the profit for the captains. So we've got both of them are very, very similar in design, build, length, depth and everything. Are there any differences between them? No, no, no.

So as you say, they're very similar in terms of the length, the beam, the depth. But the Thermopylae is only about 29 gross register tonnes larger than the Cutty Sark. So they're virtually twins? More or less. But built in different places by different yards, crewed differently, skippered differently. So that's where the difference is going to be. Absolutely. So when's it begin? When's the start go? So both ships arrive in Shanghai in late May, where they're discharging their cargoes. They load alongside each other at Wusong, so only a short distance down the Huangpu River.

So the crews are eyeballing each other the whole time? Absolutely. They're loading right alongside each other, so they probably know each other. They're having conversations at the quayside. They're possibly even trying to work out which routes they're taking in an effort to try and gain some kind of a competitive edge. So they both leave at exactly the same time? They leave on the 17th of June June 1872. How does it go? So initially

they're both delayed by thick heavy fog and though they're both headed for the same destination the captains interestingly have the right to pick their own route and they go slightly different routes. So Kemble interestingly particularly through the South China Seas he prefers to take the riskier route of staying closer to the coastline where he thinks that he can cut around the coast and save time. Again, I love the fact these captains, basically, they're taking less cargo. They're risking the ship in order to win. Yeah, I suppose drive it like you don't own it.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. They are really driving these ships and their crews incredibly hard. Now, the Suez Canals opened, which does reduce the trip by 4,000 miles from the Far East to Europe. They don't go through the Suez Canal, presumably. They go around Cape Good Hope. They go around Africa. Yes, yeah. So even though the Suez Canal's opened, the clipper ships, they can't actually take advantage of the Suez Canal.

Obviously, due to things like the customs and the dues that they have to pay, they also have to be towed through the Suez canal by a steamship because they cannot afford for the winds to give out and for them not to be able to make it through for risk of clogging up the canal so for the sake of the tea race what they need to do is they go into the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean round the Cape of Good Hope and then northwards through the Atlantic Ocean eventually heading into the English Channel and then up the Thames Estuary. So it's around 14,000 miles. And I bet after the first day or two they don't see each other?

Well, they're actually, for the earlier part, they're kind of neck and neck for a long time and they stay within sight of each other for a long time. No way! Yeah, so the ship's logs show that around about Hong Kong, they're still within sight of each other. So they're still a fair way from where they started out. It just shows how close run it was. This is Dan Snow's History Hip. More after this. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest

mysteries. The gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research. From the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings. Normans. Kings and popes. Who were rarely the best of friends. Murder. Rebellions.

And crusades. Find out who we really were. By subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit. Wherever you get your podcasts. Does anyone take an early lead? Well, the Cutty Sark suffers a few sort of maintenance problems on board. And the Mopoli takes a bit of an early lead because they benefit from Kemble's knowledge of the South China Seas. So by about sort of mid-July, so one month on,

the Cutty Sark, however, has pulled about three miles ahead. Is that all? They're still within sight of each other. But it's in the Indian Ocean that the Cutty Sark finally makes really massive gains. And she extends her lead to about 400 miles. Oh, right, OK. So she's home free. Well, not quite. She gets as far as the sort of...

As she's on the approach to the Cape of Good Hope, disaster strikes for Cutty Sark. So on the 15th of August, very early in the morning at 6am, right at the point of this 400-mile lead, she runs into a very heavy storm and high seas. It's during this storm that she disastrously loses her rudder. Loses her rudder? Yes, and the important thing to mention at this point is that she has this enormous lead

at this point, but to lose her rudder puts Sarah in a really perilous position because she's at the mercy of the wind and the current. So the rudder, just so everyone knows, it hangs off the stern and it's how you steer the ship, it moves port starboard. I mean that's the worst, you dread losing the rudder, just so everyone knows, it hangs off the stern and it's how you steer the ship. It moves port starboard. I mean, that's the worst. You dread losing your rudder. I mean, that's one of the hardest things to fix, hardest things to overcome. Oh, absolutely. You know, it really is a captain's worst nightmare because again, in the middle of a storm, you really are at the mercy of the elements. And so Robert Willis, who's the line owner's brother, is on board and he orders Moody to put ashore into Cape Town to effect repairs.

Yeah, because it's almost impossible to repair at sea there. Exactly. Well, this is what he thinks. But of course, Captain Moody is anxious not to lose his lead or to lose the race. So what he decides to do is he overrules the line owner's brother with his prerogative as captain, as master on board. And so he says, no, we're going to take one of the reserve spars. We're going to take some iron that we have on board for these minor repairs. And we will repair this and make a jury rudder whilst we're at sea.

During, presumably in this massive storm as well. So it would have been really quite terrifying. So it would have been all hands on deck. They would have been pitched and tossed around from side to side. And it would have taken about six days for them to do this. So it would have been, again, really quite a gruelling regiment to get this fixed.

And you know the thermophilies catching up. Exactly. You know, this is the thing. Yeah, they're lucky at this point that they have such a strong lead. But of course, for every hour that they're not travelling where they need to travel and where they are rudderless, that's costing them.

I just can't imagine rigging up, I can't imagine trying to build a jury rig rudder in a massive storm in the Southern Ocean, having seen the Southern Ocean in some pretty bad conditions. I mean, the ship would have been pitching and rolling. I mean, it would have been incredibly dangerous. Was anyone lost? So thankfully, no one was lost.

There is an injury on board. So for the purpose of making the rudder, they need to create a forge on board and a brigia. Interestingly, it's Captain Moody's son, Alexander, who's working as an apprentice on board, who's working the bellows. And again, while they are making this jury rudder, the waves wash over the deck and they spray him with hot coals from above. So he's very, very badly scarred during this incident. But again, he doesn't stop working. And his father keeps him working along with the rest of the ship's crew.

It's literally all hands on deck. And I love the idea that this period you could repair these wooden and iron ships really with what you had on board. You could forge, you could create new parts, it's just remarkable. And then presumably people are having to rappel down off the stern and fit the new rudder into place, they're having to literally climb into the sea. Yeah of course, I mean not only are they having to make it but you have to hang it properly. So yeah, so people are rappelling, as you say, off the side. They are having to hang it. And then obviously you need somebody to go down and really check to make sure that it's where it needs to be. I wonder if they were mostly motivated by not wanting to die or by the race. that crews do tend to pull together at times of crisis like this. It's really exhausting work.

And of course, immediately after the storm stops, you then also need to check your repairs, assess the damages and losses, recalibrate your course. And that's before you potentially make a detour to port to effect repairs. So for crews, it's a very, very difficult time, you know, pretty miserable. But I guess they're benefiting now from being this blue ribboned event. Every single person on board would have been pretty high quality. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, the crews themselves would have been largely handpicked based on their reputations as seamen, but also their reputations as good crewmates. The last thing you want when you're so many miles away from land is to find that you have

a crew that you cannot work with, who are bilious or aggressive or can't work with other people. So it's really important. As I say, these crew numbers tend to fluctuate quite rapidly during this period. So you would have had a master, a first and second mate. You would have had a steward who would have been tending to the needs of the master and the mates. You would have then had a number of petty officers. You would have had a bosun who's- The bosun would have been busy. Absolutely. So they're maintaining the ship and their equipment and they're marshalling the crew.

You have the cook, the carpenter, the sail maker. And then the wider ship's complement is able seamen who are more skilled, tend to be a bit more experienced, and then ordinary seamen. And then if there were any other sort of roles, then they would sometimes also employ apprentices as well. And so normally it would have been four hours on, four hours off with them with one watch of two hours, the dog watch. But for a disaster like this, it would have been just everyone working round the clock, wouldn't it?

Yeah, everybody is pulling together and they are working round the clock. Having been aboard, I didn't see many places where the crew could sleep. Are they just rigging up hammocks amongst the tea chests? Yeah, so when they're not working, you know, so that's when they're sleeping, they're writing letters and mending clothes and playing games or learning new crafts. They're tending to do that in their quarters. So the accommodation or the berths would have tended to vary according to the hierarchy on board ships like the Cutty Sark.

So the master obviously would have stayed in quite a large cabin at the stern of the vessel in the saloon, which would have been sort of multi-purpose as a place to stay, to also entertain guests and to be able to kind of study maps and charts as well, usually at a kind of a large central table. And then there would have been a sort of a WC and a pantry and quarters in the stern as well for the first and second mate, as well as the steward. We're used to maritime stories of, in the Georgian Navy, people being quite brutally dealt with. And do you think by this period, were the crews looked after quite well?

Were they fed enough so that they could carry out tasks like this in times of emergency? I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries. The gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history. We're talking Vikings. Normans. Kings and popes.

Who were rarely the best of friends. Murder. Rebellions. And crusades. Find out who we really were. By subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit. Wherever you get your podcasts. In terms of the way that food and, you know,

victuals and provisions are apportioned, it's managed by crew member. So there would have been a sort of a main meal that would have been taken in the galley, usually at around about noon. They would take that away back to their quarters. And so the steward would then collect that food as well, and they would take it through to the master and mates where they would typically eat it in the saloon. Food has to be kind of portioned out in this way and allocated very, very, very closely because there are very limited opportunities

to stop for food. You know, it has been known that you could potentially purchase food from a passing ship, but that tends to be quite uncommon. So on the China race, are they trying not to stop at all? They are trying not to stop at all. They are trying to go all the way without stopping. Your food on board needs to be geared towards preservation, long-lasting foods. So meats being salted for preservation. You might also carry a complement of sometimes cattle or chickens or pigs live, which you'd kind of stable on the main deck in the open air and then meals generally would have sort of comprised of things like bread beef pork you know you'd have your tinned meats soups uh preserved potatoes compressed vegetables

lemons and limes on board sounds like it might get scurvy without any any fresh fruit and veg yeah so that's issued as well as a daily ration for crew members. There's an enormous worry historically that continues all the way into the Victorian period about scurvy at sea and the dangers of scurvy. It's also worth pointing out as well that sickness and accidents are really common occurrences. When you're at port, you're better equipped

to be able to seek out local aid. When you're at sea, however, you're much more limited with what you can do. The poor master's son. They had to patch him up with whatever came to hand, I imagine. These merchant ships, unlike the Navy, are not typically carrying doctors or surgeons on board. So at this point, it's very common for masters like Kemble or Moody to keep a very small, well-stocked medical chest on board with a few reference guides. Pumping full of morphine and getting back on the bellows. Did they succeed? Do they manage to get that ship underway again? Well, the Cutty Sark, she has a couple of other different problems with the rudder

later on in the journey. She fixes it, I think, two more times during the journey. The Thermopylae during this point is able to catch up and she's able to sort of skirt around this storm and carry on on her voyage pretty much uninterrupted with a very clear run home. It's worth making the point that, you know, with Thermopylae, she fares very well in light winds, you know, particularly when she's sailing to windward, so the side or direction from where the wind is blowing. And in the region around the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern Atlantic, that's really ideal conditions for that kind of sailing. Yeah, you've got to tack into the wind. Yeah, it's not a following wind. Okay.

Absolutely. And it's, of course, in this period to the wind. Yeah, it's not following wind. Okay. Absolutely. And it's, of course, in this period, while the Cutty Sark is struggling with her rudder and just trying to come back from that, that Thermopylae actually gains another world record. So she manages to travel 380 statute miles in a single day, something that's, again, I don't believe has been exceeded by a sailing ship before.

That's crazy. Okay, so who wins? So to international acclaim, it is the Thermopylae, which enters London on the 10th of October, 1872, 106 days after she sets out. And she manages to achieve a kind of an overall speed of about 16 knots, travelling around 18 miles per hour. And Cutty Sark arrives nine days later. But that's astonishing from Thermopylae I mean average speed

is 16 knots that's crazy. Absolutely. And is there wild celebrations? There are there are you know that as soon as Thermopylae docks and this record is well known she is widely celebrated and Kemble and his crews are really sort of hoisted up above as kind of the pinnacle of seamanship in Britain. It's a big win for the east coast over the west coast in Scotland, that's brutal. Absolutely, so the London Scotsman at the time writes that there'd be many a long face in Glasgow on hearing of the Thermopylae's success. The Falkirk Herald would later write that the Thermopylae, she sailed so smoothly and with so little a breeze that she could do sort of seven knots and you could walk around the decks with a lighted candle and it wouldn't blow out.

It was that smooth. But at one point the Cutty Sark was 400 miles ahead, so I mean she could have absolutely smashed it if she hadn't had that rudder trouble. That was very bad luck for the Cutty Sark. And what's interesting is that even though Thermopylae is held up as this record-breaking ship, the Cutty Sark actually, ironically, gains notoriety as the kind of plucky underdog, especially this heroic story of her fixing her rudder at sea, losing her lead. It becomes a really big part of the mythology around the tea races, and the Cutty Sark and her captain and the crew are really lauded. It's worth making the point that the carpenter, a man called Henderson, is awarded £50 on top of his wages for his speedy thinking in fixing the rudder.

I'm not surprised. Did the owner forgive the captain for overruling his brother and making him not go to Cape Town? Well, it's difficult to say. I mean, Moody is furious that he's lost and he is incredibly furious at Robert Willis, the line owner's brother, who complains to the furious at Robert Willis, the line owner's brother,

who complains to the owner, John Willis, about the fact that Moody takes this massive risk by trying to effect the repairs at sea and not pulling in and doing the sensible thing, risking the lives of the crew and the cargo. And as a result, a really large argument and row breaks out. And Moody, that is at this point when he leaves the Cutty Sark and he goes off. So he never does the tea race again? He doesn't do the tea race again, no. And he returns back to his native Scotland and does a number of other coastal runs and other voyages on different lines. Does the tea race go on capturing the imagination like this or is that the last hurrah? So I would say really the tea race of 1872 is probably the last time that it really captures national and international attention.

By this point, the clippers are on the way out. It's ironic, really, the 1866 race was probably the most high profile year of this tight victory back to London. The T-Race also saw the entry of another vessel, which I haven't mentioned. And this was a Glasgow-built iron-hulled auxiliary steamship called the Earl King. So it's got an engine aboard? Yep, she's iron and she's got an engine aboard and she carries passengers and a far larger cargo of tea. It's the future knocking. So whilst everybody's incredibly excited about the Clipper races and what's going on with the Clipper ships,

she leaves Fuchao eight days later than the aerial. So quite a while after all the other clipper ships have set out. But she manages to complete her journey, overtake all of the clipper ships and arrive in London 15 days before the Taiping and the aerial. And it's incredibly ironic

because Captain McKinnon, who was the master of the Taiping, who would win the 1866 T-Race, his wife was on board the Earl King. Oh, right. She chose to go back on the steamship. Yeah, well, she was heavily pregnant at the time, so she wanted to get back as soon as she could. But it's really interesting, not only did her husband,

Captain McKinnon, manage to win the race that year, she saw firsthand the future, really, and the future of shipbuilding and trade generally with this victory of the Earl King. So really, you know, it's the Taiping that wins the race, but actually the Earl King is a very big part of that year. Well, steam is disrupting the industry. In 1866, because of this really tight victory of the Taiping and all of these clipper ships arriving in really quick succession, this is the last year that the premium is written into the Bill of Lading as a prize incentive. So that year, the premium had been set at about 10 shillings per

tonne. If you're the first ship in. That's if you're first ship in. But because so many of them had arrived pretty much on the same day, as well as obviously this consignment, this far larger consignment from the Earl King 15 days earlier, the merchants lost out massively. Yeah, the money was just spread out all between them all. Absolutely. So even though the races were to continue from this point on, and there's still an awful lot of money at stake, it's the honour and the reputation and also the possible rates for higher conveyance in the future that is motivating captains, crews and merchants. So there's life in them yet though, isn't it? The tea race gets taken over by the steamships,

but they find other routes to plough. They do so many of the composite clipper ships end up actually going on to the wool trade you know the Australian wool trade. So the Thermopylae completes her final tea run in 1881 right at the point where steam is gaining supremacy and so from 1882 onwards she enters the Australian wool run like many of these other clippers. This is still quite a big market for the clipper ships, because at this point, the price of coal is quite high, and it's seen as just an uneconomic distance for large steamships. So here the clippers again have another sort of heyday, really. Nice, the competition reborn. There's high excitement again as these captains are driving their ships ever faster.

But it's worth pointing out as well that the Cutty Sark enters the trade in 1883, so one year after Thermopylae enters. And so this rivalry with Thermopylae and Cutty Sark is reborn in the Australian wool trade. And this time does Cutty Sark come back and get the win? I think it deserves. She does. She takes revenge really and every year until the Thermopylae is sold out of the trade in 1890, Cutty Sark dominates. Oh, really? Absolutely.

And that's why now it has the reputation as the faster of the two vessels. Absolutely. She well and truly has her revenge by this point. The Thermopylae is sold out of the trade in 1890. Steamships are able to use this Suez Canal, so they can do the trip faster. As a result, this era of the clipper ships is very, very short-lived with these races. I guess technology was just changing so fast in this period. It was impossible. One minute you're cutting-edge innovation, next minute you're

obsolete. Absolutely. And so, you know, for the Thermopylae, she's sold in 1890 in Rotterdam by the Aberdeen White Star Line, And she's sold to a Canadian buyer from the Mount Royal Milling and Manufacturing Company in Montreal. And she's operating again on a trade to Southeast Asia on the West Coast sort of North American trade route, where she's bringing back rice cargoes and sending out things like timber, flour, coal. You know, this is about the sort of same time that the Cutty Sark is sold out as well. And interestingly, in 1895, the Thermopylae and the Cutty Sark are both bought by the Portuguese Navy for use initially as a sail training vessel. But where the Cutty Sark is used successfully as a sail training vessel, the Thermopylae on reassessment is found to have really been showing her age by this point.

And so she is turned instead into a coal hulk for the Portuguese navy oh she deserved better she serves in this capacity for some years under the name Pedro Nunes and she's eventually towed out a royal regatta and used for target practice on the 13th of October 1907 you know in a big event that's attended by the queen of Portugal and she's eventually sunk by two whitehead torpedoes in the mouth of the Tagus, where she still is today. But the interesting thing is, you know, if that decision to appoint her as a sail training vessel had gone her way, it might well be the Thermopylae that would be installed in Greenwich to this day. Interesting. Well, thanks very much, Max. Thanks for talking me through one of the great rivalries of Victorian history. Thanks very much. As the 19th century drew to a close,

Britain's imperial system was changing. The tea trade with China that fuelled Britain's expansion and wealth was giving way. Patterns of trade were changing. There were new economic opportunities and technological advancements. We moved towards a new era in global trade and the establishment of a modern food supply chain. For much of the 19th century, tea had been a major staple of British trade. But the British were not content to rely solely on Chinese tea. In a daring,

some would say dastardly, act of corporate espionage, botanist Robert Fortune was sent to China to smuggle out tea plants and seeds. He was successful, and the British were able to establish vast tea plantations in British-controlled India, particularly Assam and Darjeeling, which eventually surpassed China as the world's largest tea producer. As the China trade waned, other opportunities presented themselves. Britain paid more attention to Australia, a colony rich in natural resources. The vast open lands of Australia were ideal for sheep farming and soon wool became a major export. By the late 19th century, Australia was supplying a significant portion of the world's wool, which was in high

demand for the booming textile industry in Britain. But there was also an entirely new export offer from Australasia. This was the dawn of the age of refrigeration, a new era for humanity. For the first time ever, meat could be transported across the globe from one country to another. But the ships still had to make an astonishingly long journey that was no less perilous, even with a fridge. And New Zealand was further away than China. If the waters off the Cape of Good Hope, off southern Africa, are dangerous, well then the southern ocean in which New Zealand sits is something else.

You have to sail through the roaring 40s with its massive swells and its howling gales and the occasional iceberg. It's a difficult crossing for any ship today, never mind a 19th century ship weighed down by tons of meat. The Dunedin was one ship that attempted that journey. It was the first fully refrigerated ship in 1890. It set sail for England from New Zealand. But it never arrived. It vanished. And to this day, no trace has been found of its crew or cargo. Only bizarre stories from sailors on other ships about unusual sightings.

Join me on Monday, 22nd of June, for our next story in our Ships That Built Britain's Imperial Century series, as we tell the curious tale of the Dunedin, of its mysterious disappearance, and its role in a changing world. From the colonisation of Australia to the establishment of a global food supply chain that we still rely on today.

The best way not to miss the next episode of the series is to hit follow in your podcast app, and then the episodes will drop into your library as if by magic on the day they're released. Thanks so much to Max and the Lloyds Register Foundation. You can find out more about their history and their work that supports research,

innovation, education to help the global community tackle the most pressing safety and risk challenges. Just go to hec.lrfoundation.org.uk. you