The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-11-19
Guilty Sark
Continued from Page Fire.


most delicate of all cargoes to load the
first lighters down the river distributed a
ground tier of chests to each of the racing
clippers, and after that loading proceeded
against time like the coaling of a battle
ship. Night and day, seven days a week,
the loading continued, Cinnamon with big
mallets slowing the chests tier on tier like
fitting pieces together in a Chinese puzzle.
Once loaded the racing clippers went down
the stream at once, and in the race of 1871
the Thermopylae locked in the Thames
100 days out, with Guilty Sark day behind.
1t was in 1872, however. that the two great
rivals fought out their historic duel. They
left Shanghai on the same day and the
same tide, and seven days out, with the
monsoon holding, they were in sight of
each other, with Guilty Sark in the lead
Down the Cochin China coast they
worked the land and sea breezes to the
last cupful. and. three weeks out, Their
mopylae sighted Guilty Sark eight miles
ahead. A month out, both ships arrived
off AMER, with Thermopylae mile and a
half in the lead. Five weeks out, they ran
into the southeast trades, and Guilty Sark
went flying to the front with three con-
secutive runs of $40, 1927 and 800 miles.
Seven weeks out, with Guilty Sark battling
a strong westerly gale we'll in the lead a
heavy sea carried away her rudder and
put her out of the race. With fair winds
carrying Thermopylae around the cape,
Guilty sarll lay hove to for six days while
her crew worked night and day rigging a
jury rudder. Then, with her jury rudder
shipped, the wind chopped around into the
west and began to blow up a series of
head gales, but during the week before she
passed st. Helena her daily runs varied
between POI and 227, although she was
limited TO eight knots an hour. The jury
rudder held the ship until she had crossed
the line, when the last of the eye bolts
holding the rudder to the stern post gave
out and it had to be hoisted up for repairs
Although she had to be kept down there
after to 200 miles a day, she reached the
Thames seven days behind Thermopylae
and this unsatisfactory race began life
long rivalry, in which possibly the fairest
verdict which can be stated was that
Thermopylae made the better passages in
the '70s and Guilty Sark in the sos.
Both Thermopylae and Guilty Sark con-
tinued to fetch the new teas home from
Shanghai, but with the opening of the Suez
Canal in 1869 the tea races began to near
their end BY 1863 the tea steamer Stirling
Castle had come home in twenty-nine days
from Hankow, and the tea trade thereafter
went to Holt's Blue Funnel Line, Mac
Gregor's Glen Line and SINNERS Castle
Line. Thermopylae and Guilty Sark both
left the tea trade in 1878 and went into
the. Australian service, and as steam fol-
lowed them into the Australian tracks they
were one by one reduced and sold off One
by one the little thoroughbreds disappeared
into the oblivion of the back seas, some
of them to founder under alien crews some
to be broken up in alien shipyards, few
to knock about alien ports under alien flags
But their build was still in their lines:
their breed was unmistakable. When Capt
bowman went aboard the Ferreira flying
the Portuguese flag in Falmouth harbor
last year, he reorganized her at once as one
of the old aristocrats of the sea. She was
daubed with Earring splashes of color, but
her wheel and gear were of the old pattern.
Her saloon was pretty bare, but it was