Golden Spur

[john sefton]

The GOLDEN SPUR was built in 1864 by P Ogier for G T Carrington. She was a flush deck rigged ship built of oak frames with teak and greenheart planking.

Length 177ft. Beam 31ft. Draught 20ft. with a tonnage of 657. She was capable of carrying some 1100 tons of cargo her cost was £16000.

Her figurehead was a Knight Cavalier the elaborate stern decoration included the shield of Guernsey while the captains accommodation was a magnificent saloon taken from the luxury yacht PET.

Her maiden voyage in November 1864 was with coal from Swansea to Shanghai and then for the next five seasons
she was engaged in the tea trade from China to London. A record of the times taken by all the participating
vessels reveals that she was no flyer, her best run was 199 days when she was 23rd out of 55 vessels in 1867/8. The other four seasons she returned times of 131. 135. 131 and 141 days, these times comparing with the winners passages of from 89 to 98 days.

However, she did set one record when she ran from Cardiff to Hong Kong in 90 days during the voyage depicted on the 34p stamp. This lasted some 20 months and entailed trips from Macao to Buenos Aires-Mauritius-Australia back to Hong Kong and finally to Liverpool via the Philippines with 35699 bags of sugar and a mixed load of timber, chinaware and other items.

She was lost in February 1879 at Haiphong when her tug inexplicably let go of the towrope at the bar on a falling tide and although part of her cargo of rice and all the crew were saved she was too badly damaged to salvage.

Refs: The Tea Clippers, by David R Macgregor. Guernsey Philatelic News.

Guernsey SG415/19