Anglona (clipper)

History
United States
Name:	Anglona
Owner:	R.B. Forbes, Russell & Co.
Builder:	Brown & Bell, New York
Launched:	1840
General characteristics
Class and type:	Opium clipper
Tons burthen:	90 or 92 tons
Sail plan:	Schooner

The schooner Anglona was the first American opium clipper. She sailed in the Chinese coastal trade in the 1840s, and had a famous race with the schooner Ariel around Lintin Island.

Anglona was a flush decked fore-and-aft schooner of the New York pilot boat type.

R.B. Forbes was interested in fast schooners for clipper and coastal service in China. The first clipper which Forbes sent to China, the Rose, foundered in the July typhoon of 1841.

Forbes purchased Anglona at Brown & Bell’s New York yard for Russell & Co. for use as a despatch boat between Hong Kong, Macao, and Whampoa.

Other American pilot boat models sent to China in the 1840s included the Zephyr and the Spec, also built on the New York model. Shortly after Shanghai opened to foreign trade, three Boston pilot boats were sent: the 90 ton Golden Gate, the 90 ton Siren, and the 75 ton Daniel Webster, which served as pilot boats in the Yangtze River.

Within two weeks of purchase, Anglona sailed for China under Captain Turner. She arrived at Cape Horn in 61 days, and Java Head in 95 days.

Russell & Co put Anglona in service on the Canton River until the new treaty ports opened, at which time she was put in the coastal trade.

Captain Turner did not serve long, as he was knocked overboard by the mainboom during a sudden jibe, and drowned. In 1843, Anglona was under command of Capt. Abbot and Capt. Adamson; in 1844 she was under Captain Macfarlane.

On September 20, 1841, Anglona left Hong Kong with a 108-ton cargo of rice from Macao bound for the East Coast; on Dec. 2, she left Hong Kong with a 108-ton cargo from Macao of opium or specie bound for Namoa.

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Wikipedia