Clipper (3m).
L/B/D:
197.4 × 33.9 × 21 (60.2m × 10.3m × 6.4m). Tons:
853 net. Hull:
composite. Des.:
William Rennie. Built:
Robert Steele & Co., Greenock, Scotland; 1865.
Ordered by Shaw, Lowther & Maxton for the China tea trade, Ariel was built of composite construction, with iron frames and wood planking. Named for "an ayrie spirit" in Shakespeare's Tempest, she was considered one of the most beautiful clippers ever built, and her long-time captain John Keay later wrote to Basil Lubbock:
Ariel was a perfect beauty to every nautical man who ever saw her: in symmetrical grace and proportion of hull, spars, sails, rigging and finish, she satisfied the eye and put all in love with her without exception. The curve of stem, figurehead and entrance, the easy sheer and graceful lines of the hull seemed grown and finished as life takes shape and beauty. The proportion and stand of her masts and yards were all perfect.
It was a pleasure to coach her. Very light airs gave her headway and I could trust her like a live thing in all evolutions; in fact she could do anything short of speaking.
Though her career was short, Ariel left an impressive record. Her first return from Foochow, under Keay, established her as one of the fastest clippers. On May 29, 1866, she crossed the bar at Foochow fourteen hours behind
Fiery Cross (though she had finished loading first) and less than a day ahead of Serica, Taitsing, and Taeping. She carried 615 tons of tea at £5 per ton, with a guaranteed premium of "10s per ton extra if first sailing vessel in dock [at London] with new teas from Foochow." The ships were virtually neck and neck down the China Sea, across the Indian Ocean, and up the Atlantic. Ariel was off Deal at 0800 September 6, followed ten minutes later by Taeping and, later that night, Serica. (All three were from Steele's yard.) Ariel and Taeping split the premium, but the simultaneous arrival of so much tea drove down the market price and the offer of a premium was thereafter dropped.
On her second passage out, Ariel left Gravesend on October 14, 1866, and anchored at Hong Kong on January 5, 1867, after a passage of 83 days, the fastest ever made against the monsoon and less than a week off the record of 77 days made by Cairngorm in 1853. The average of Ariel's other three outward passages was 106 days. Captain Keay's first mate Courtenay took command of Ariel in 1868, and four years later she was lost at sea en route from London for Sydney under Captain Cachevaille.
Lubbock, China Clippers. MacGregor, Tea Clippers.
