The opium clipper Sylph salvaged by the sloop Clive, William John Huggins, in the National Maritime Museum
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History | |
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Name: | Sylph |
Namesake: | Mythological creature in Western tradition, the Sylph |
Owner: | Rustomjee Cowasjee |
Builder: | Currie & Co., Sulkea, Calcutta |
Launched: | 1831 |
Acquired: | Jardine Matheson, 1833 |
In service: | 1832 |
Out of service: | 1849 |
Homeport: | Hong Kong |
Fate: | Disappeared en route to Singapore, 1849 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Opium clipper |
Tons burthen: | 304 (bm) |
Length: | Hull, 100 ft (30.48 m) |
Propulsion: | Sails |
Complement: | Crew of 70 |
Sylph was a clipper ship built in Calcutta in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph went on to set an unbroken speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. Two contemporary paintings of Sylph show her to have been a heavily rigged ship with trysails on each mast and a tall, high-peaked spanker.
Sylph was designed in London by Sir Robert Seppings, surveyor of the Royal Navy, to the order of a consortium of Calcutta merchants headed by Rustomjee Cowasjee. Sleek, elegant, functional and devoid of ornament, Sylph did not have the rakish lines of the later clippers, yet proved to be particularly swift. She is supposed to have run from the Sandheads to Macao in sixteen days.
In 1833 Jardines sent Sylph to explore the profitability of trading along the Chinese coast. Arriving at Macao in September, Sylph unloaded some of the opium she had transported from Calcutta and immediately departed northwards with the German Protestant missionary Karl Gützlaff on board as translator. During the First Opium War (1839–1842) Jardines were offered a premium price for the ship, an offer that was declined on the basis of the huge profits she made from transporting opium.
Sylph and another well-known clipper, Cowasjee Family, were fitted out with extra guns and full European crews during the war, and were joined by the Lady Hayes, belonging to Jardine, Matheson & Co., the three ships sailing in company. While they were sailing among the islands Chinese war junks surrounded them and a fierce battle ensued. But Captains Wallace and Vice, of Sylph and Cowasjee Family, were two of the most experienced captains in the trade, celebrated for their daring and success in dealing with pirates, and the war junks suffered a severe defeat, many of them being sunk; after which the opium clippers had no more trouble.