CEDRIC THE SAXON As described in OCEAN RACERS, Ontario Library. She carried double topgallant sails and a skysail at the main, and is described by one of her masters as a remarkable model with hardly three frames alike in the midship section, having a 'tumble home' like an old wooden line-of-battleship, so that when she was lying with her rail level with a quay a plank had to be run out for anyone to step ashore. CEDRIC THE SAXON was an exceptionally fast ship, with a splendid entrance and a bow flanged like that of a yacht. At the time she was built the aesthetic aspect of ships, was beginning to fall into disuse. But the builders of CEDRIC THE SAXON gave her many of the decorative accessories of a bygone dispensation. Her figurehead was a lifelike representation of the Thane of Rotherwood, in armour and with spear in hand, and the capitals of the teak pilasters at the break of the poop were formed of carved heads of Coeur de Lion, Friar Tuck, and other characters from Ivanhoe. Captain A. T. Pope, D.S.O., R.N.R., who served in her as mate and master from 1888 to 1891, writes regarding her speed : 'While I was in her we made no fast passages, but frequently logged thirteen knots for several consecutive days and fourteen for lesser periods, these speeds being patent log showings at deep loaded draught' Captain Sir Arthur Rostron, who served his time in her, says that he has known her make ' seventeen knots, and no fuss about it.' During her early years she made several remarkable passages in the Calcutta jute trade and on the Colonies run, including one from Liverpool to Calcutta of seventy-two days, tying for the record with Carmichael's JASON, and another of twenty-six days from Calcutta to the Semaphore. Other performances were eighty -four days to Melbourne and eighty to Sydney. She entered the 'Frisco grain trade in the early 'eighties for the first time, and although she never made any very speedy passages, she participated in some very keen racing. She sailed from San Francisco on October ist, 1885, commanded by Captain McNair, her master on the occasion of her memorable Calcutta passage, with 2,319 tons of wheat. The big Belfast-built four-master, W. J. PIRRIE, left the same day, with 3,864 tons, the largest grain cargo ever loaded at San Francisco at that date. Three days later the CITY OF LUCKNOW also sailed with 1,800 tons of flour. This ship, of course, was one of Smith's fast little Glasgow 'Cities' built by Barclay, Curie & Co., originally in the Calcutta jute trade, but then being displaced by the big vessels of the Palgrave and Liverpool type. The CITY OF LUCKNOW had already made her mark in the grain fleet, having beaten half a dozen ships home the previous year. All three of the contestants being fast ships, and sailing so close together, a great deal of interest was taken in their performances, and there was more than £1000 on the race in bets, as well as countless suits of clothes and silk hats. The CITY OF LUCKNOW again proved the winner, arriving in Falmouth Harbour ninety-nine days out. The CEDRIC THE SAXON reached Queenstown seventeen days later. In 1888, however, she beat the fleet on the run home by some ten days, including the EATON HALL and the PEGASUS. The EATON HALL was owned by the firm of Balfour, Williamson, the latter a cousin of one of CEDRIC THE SAXON's owners, and there was a good deal of friendly rivalry between the two. The CEDRIC THE SAXON was still going strong right into the 'nineties, when she went out to Melbourne in seventy-five days, her best passage on that run. In 1896 she left New York with a cargo of case oil for the port where the lost ships go. She was one of the ships men love. 'I was very proud of the Cedric,' says her old captain, ' and my pen runs away when I think of her.' Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?176346
Jan Lettens 27/04/2012 In October 1896, the sailing ship CEDRIC THE SAXON sailed from New York with a cargo of case oil for the East Indies and was never heard of again. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?176346
The design stamp is made after painting of Jack Spurling.
Niger 2020;(6x1000) f.
Source: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?176346. http://www.spurlingandrouxwatercolours.com/mpcjc.html
«CEDRIC THE SAXON» (1875 - 1896)- CALCUTTA JUTE CLIPPER
«CEDRIC THE SAXON» (1875 - 1896)- CALCUTTA JUTE CLIPPER
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