TAIWAN
Shipbuildervessel built by
Alexander HALL & Co.
(Footdee, Aberdeen)
DateNovember 1866
Object NameSCREW STEAMER
MediumIRON
ClassificationsShip
Dimensionslength 174.9 x breadth 24.2' x depth 12.4'
gross tonnage 337 tons
gross tonnage 337 tons
Object numberABDSHIP002874
Keywords
Yard Number: 249
Fate: uncertain, possibly lost in the South China Sea, 20 June 1867 (see note)
Propulsion: Steam
Description: Screw steamer, iron, brig rigged, 1 deck, 2 masts, shield figurehead, 2 engines, 4 bulkheads
Owner:
26/12/1866: Registered at Aberdeen for owner;
John Cardno Couper Esq., Craigiebuckler, Aberdeenshire, all 64 shares.
21/12/1867: John Cardno Couper 64 shares to John Stewart Lapraik and Alexander Maglashan Heaton, merchants in Hong Kong - Lapraik and Heaton empowered to sell ship at Hong Kong or elsewhere in China or Japan for not less than 60,000 dollars Hong Kong within 24 months.
22/06/1868: Registry closed - vessel sold to a subject of the Netherlands at Nagasaki per letter of British Consul 15/04/1868.
(Aberdeen Register of Ships (Aberdeen City Archives))
Master:
1867: Master A. Roper
Voyage:
1867: Aberdeen - China
General History:
24/07/1867:
LOSS OF A CHINA TRADER. -The vessel reported lost in our columns yesterday is the screw-steamer TAIWAN, 299 tons, 72 horse-power, built by Hall & Co. of Aberdeen, and owned by her builders. The TAIWAN was on a voyage from Foo-chow-foo for London, laden with tea, and was totally lost on 20th June. Nothing is said regarding the fate of the crew. She was commanded by Captain A. Roper. The statement made by an evening contemporary that the vessel lost was the celebrated TAITSING is incorrect.
Glasgow Herald
[The Glasgow Evening Citizen (23/07/1867) reported that "Fears are entertained for that celebrated clipper ship TAITSING from Foo-cow-foo for London, with Tea has been wrecked. A telegram states that 'Tai Ixan' from the same port, bound for the same destination with the same cargo, was totally lost on 20th June; but the notorious inaccuracy of the East Indian telegraph clerks, the general resemblance and the fact that there is no 'Tai Ixan' on the register of clippers, so far as is known, all seem to point to the conclusion that one of the most renowned China ships ever built on the Clyde is no longer afloat"]
Note: The Glasgow reports cited above are the last mentions of the steamer TAIWAN in the British press, though they were obviously garbled and unreliable. They would seem to be contradicted by transactions regarding the vessel being recorded in the Aberdeen Register in 1868. TAIWAN remains in Lloyd's until 1873 (T22) but with no changes to any details, and her owners remaining the builders not Couper, this appears to be the register simply not being updated rather than any genuine evidence of her continued existence.
Engines: machinary by Hall, Russell & Co., 72 hp
