Built as a full rigged clipper ship by the yard of Chaloner in Liverpool for John Campbell, Glasgow.
Launched as the FIERY CROSS.
Tonnage 695 gross and net, dim. 56 x 9.7 x 5.9m.
1860 Delivered to owner.
The FIERY CROSS was designed by William Rennie and she was one of the fastest ships of that time.
FIERY CROSS was a famous British Tea Clipper which sailed in the Great Tea Race of 1866. Under Captain Robinson. She was the first ship home in the tea seasons of 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1865.
She was the second Tea Clipper of this name; the first FIERY CROSS, built in 1855, had the same owner and designer and was also built in Liverpool. This earlier ship was lost on the then-uncharted Fiery Cross Reef in the China Sea on 4 March 1860 (the crew reached land safely in her boats). The new ship was already being built and so took on the name of her predecessor.
Tea trade
From 1860 to 1875, the ship sailed in the tea trade between London and Chinese ports like Hong Kong, Foochow, Canton, and Shanghai.
Great Tea Race of 1866
Laden with close to a million pounds of tea, FIERY CROSS raced nine other ships from China to England in The Great Tea Race of 1866. The first five ships, the TAIPING, ARIEL, ERICA, FIERY CROSS, and TAITSING, finished a 14,000 mile race within three days of one another. FIERY CROSS arrived fourth, in "the closest run ever recorded."
FIERY CROSS had the best overall 24-hour run of all the competitors in this race on 24 June, when she traveled 318 miles, averaging 13.7 knots.
Sailing performance
According to Lubbock, the tea clippers FIERY CROSS, TAIPING, SERI and LAHLOO, performed at their best in light breezes, as they were all rigged with single topsails.
1868 Captain George Kirkup was poisoned by his Chinese cook and died in Hong Kong, Captain Becket brought the ship home.
1874 She was sold to J. Morrison, London, not renamed, he kept the ship in the trade between the U,K, and Far East.
1877 Sold to G.P. Addison, London, not renamed and still used in the trade to the Far East.
1880 Re-rigged in a barque
1883 Sold to William Wright, London, not renamed.
1887 Sold to J Gilbody, London, not renamed, the same year sold to Actieselskabt Ellen Lines (O.C. Nielsen), Frederikstad, Norway and renamed in ELLEN LINES.
Tonnage then given as 717 gross, 692 net.
21 November 1893 on a voyage from Skelleftea, Sweden to London her cargo of coal got on fire, and she was towed in at Sheerness, she was abandoned and sank in the Stangate Creek on the River Midway.
Sierra Leone 2016 Le 6000 sg?, scott?
Source Wikipedia and The Tea Clippers by David R MacGregor. Internet.