Tristan Issue Recalls Age Of Sail

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 5

Tristan Issue Recalls Age Of Sail

(By

KENNETH ANTHONY)

There were few more exciting sights in the age of sail than one of the great tea-clippers as they raced home from China across the Pacific, round Cape Horn and so to England with the first of the new season’s China tea. One of these tall ships is shown on a stamp issued in June last year by the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. The clippers have been described as the most beautiful sailing ships ever built as well as the fastest. It was no doubt the grace and speed of these vessels that made the Americans, many years later, name their pioneer trans-

pacific flying boats after them. Yet it is often forgotten nowadays that the clippers were among the most dangerous ships ever put to sea. Very narrow in proportion to their length, they were difficult to handle and their fine lines sacrificed safety for speed. With a following sea, the crew were in constant danger of being washed overboard. If all went well, there were big profits to be made and handsome prizes for the crew of the first ship home. To clip a day or two off the run, the skippers would often

take great risks, and an alarming number of tea clippers, including several of the famous record-breakers, came to grief. The clippers were usually in too much of a hurry to stop at Tristan but the Cutty Sark perhaps the bestknown clipper of all. if only because she is now the sole survivor of the fleet did call at the island in 1876. By that time, the heyday of the clippers was already over. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made cargo steamers an economic proposition on the long sea routes to the East, and gradually the clippers were pushed out of business. The stamp shown here is one of a set showing various types of sailing vessels associated with Tristan in the 19th century. It certainly helps to illustrate the isolation of the tiny island community in the days when the islanders were lucky to see more than one or two ships a year from the outside world.