Floral Queen - a general history

Completed February 1865; Official No. 50192; Code Letters HVCW.

Owners: John Willis & Sons, London.

Masters: 1866-70 Malcolm Bell (C.N.1207 London 1856); 1870-71 Owen; 1872 Watts; 1873-76 George Moses Maxted (C.N.14101 London 1856); 1876 James N Smart.

Voyages: James Hudson Taylor, a British Protestant Christian, booked passage on Lammermuir to China for his group of 18 missionaries & his four children. The ship left East India Docks in London on 26 May 1866 with a crew of 34 & the 22 passengers. When outbound she survived two typhoons, one in the Pacific & the other in the East China Sea arriving bruised & battered at Shanghai on 30 September 1866. James Taylor later recalled the voyage:

‘The appearance of things was now truly terrific. Rolling fearfully, the masts & yards hanging down were tearing our only sail & battering like a ram against the main-yard. The deck from forecastle to poop was one scarcely broken sea. The roar of the water, the clanging of chains, the beating of the dangling masts & yards, the sharp smack of the torn sails made it almost impossible to hear any orders that might be given.

For three days after that the danger only increased, as the ship was making water fast. Fires were all out & cooking was impossible. For a time no drinking water was obtainable, & the women as well as the men worked at the pumps. But through it all prayer was so wonderfully answered that no lives were lost or serious injuries sustained.’

April 1870 Singapore for Bangkok; December 1871 Singapore for Rangoon; 1873 left London bound for Adelaide but without the important ships carpenter’s tool chest. John Willis, the owner, rushed to the docks to request that the Orient deliver the chest to the ship when it reached Adelaide. Mitchell, the captain of the Orient, told Willis that he would overtake Lammermuir before it crossed the Equator to transfer the chest at sea. He was as good as his word & the event became famous; from London arriving Sydney 29 April 1875.

Lammermuir sailed from Calcutta on 4 February 1876 bound for London with 1,274 tons of bagged rice & a crew of 28. There were also between 200 & 300 coolies aboard going to work in the sugar plantations of the West Indies. She was spoken to in 15.48N/90.08E about 100 miles SE of Ceylon on 23 February 1876 & was not heard from again. It was assumed she had foundered in the Indian Ocean during a hurricane.

She was posted as missing by Lloyds in September 1876. The loss on the vessel & cargo was about £23,000.

Some passenger and crew lists can be found in the book Lost Ships of the Hartlepools.

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