Peking (1860)

Peking (1860)
Ship name	Peking
Ship class	Full-rigged sailing ship
Ship owner	Various (see text)
Ship builder	William Doxford & Sons
Ship launched	1860
Ship tonnage	1,829 GRT
Ship length	314 ft
Ship beam	44 ft
Ship propulsion	Full-rigged sailing
Ship status	Preserved / museum ship (subject to conservation)

Peking (1860) was a British-built full-rigged sailing ship launched in 1860, notable for her role as a tea clipper and for later being employed in passenger and cargo trade linked to Shanghai, Hamburg, and New York City. She participated in the milieu shaped by the Second Opium War, the Taiping Rebellion, and the expansion of steam and sail commerce during the Victorian era and the Second Industrial Revolution. Peking's career intersected with shipyards such as William Doxford & Sons, shipping companies including J. & A. Allan, and maritime institutions like the National Maritime Museum and the South Street Seaport Museum.

Background and construction

Peking was constructed at the William Doxford & Sons yard in Sunderland amid the mid-19th century expansion of British shipbuilding tied to trade routes to China, India, and transatlantic services to United States. The vessel emerged in an era dominated by clipper designs exemplified by ships like Cutty Sark, Sovereign of the Seas (1852 ship), and Thermopylae (1868 ship), when firms such as Clipper Ship Lines and owners from Glasgow and Liverpool sought fast passages for consignments of tea and wool from Shanghai, Canton and Calcutta. Her launch reflected technological exchange among yards influenced by naval architects associated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel-era innovations and the commercial pressures following treaties such as the Treaty of Tientsin.

Design and specifications

Peking was built as a three-masted full-rigged ship with a clipper bow, emphasizing speed over bulk in the tradition of clipper ships. At approximately 1,829 GRT and about 314 feet in length, her hull lines resembled contemporaries like Flying Cloud and Lightning (clipper), while her sail plan echoed practices used aboard ships referenced in Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping and designs promoted by shipbuilders in Tyne and Wear. Her construction used oak and teak timbers sourced via trade networks involving Mumbai and Batavia, and she carried a complement of officers and crew trained in seamanship traditions associated with institutions such as the Greenwich Hospital school and seafaring communities from Southampton and Bristol. Nautical fittings followed standards recorded by Royal Naval Dockyard practices and by commercial insurers like Lloyd's of London.

Service history

Peking's early voyages connected ports including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Canton, San Francisco, and New York City, engaging in cargoes comparable to those of tea clippers and refrigerated shipments paralleling later trade to Australia and New Zealand. Owners and masters who commanded the vessel were linked to merchant houses based in Glasgow, London, and Hamburg. Over decades she alternated roles from fast sail conveyance to emigrant transport influenced by routes promoted after the California Gold Rush and during migration waves to Australia and Argentina. The ship entered registers documented alongside vessels of the British Merchant Navy and was subject to inspections by ports governed under admiralty rules from Deptford and Portsmouth.

Role in the Second Opium War and 1860 expedition

Although launched in 1860, Peking is associated in contemporary records with the geopolitical aftermath of the Second Opium War and with maritime movements linked to the 1860 Anglo-French expedition to Peking and related operations around Taku Forts and the Bohai Sea. Ships of her class were requisitioned or chartered to move troops, supplies, and diplomatic envoys between staging points such as Hong Kong and the Chinese capital approaches near Tianjin. The expeditionary context involved forces under commanders and figures referenced in connection with the British Army and the French Expeditionary Corps and actions that produced documents like the Treaty of Tianjin and the capture of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan). Maritime logistics relied on commercial tonnage similar to Peking’s, and port operations engaged authorities from Customs House (Canton) as well as shipping agents based in Shanghai Municipal Council facilities.

Later career and ownership changes

After decades in the clipper trade, Peking passed through multiple owners and registry changes, reflecting patterns seen among former clippers such as Cutty Sark and Lallah Rookh. She was sold to companies in Germany and later to interests involved in sail training and museum preservation linked to organizations like the Hamburg Maritime Museum and, subsequently, institutions in New York City such as the South Street Seaport Museum. Her refits paralleled restoration projects overseen by conservationists associated with the International Council on Monuments and Sites principles and ship restorers who had worked on vessels in Bremerhaven and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Preservation, legacy, and cultural references

Peking's legacy intersects with maritime heritage movements commemorated by bodies like the National Historic Ships UK and preservation campaigns resembling those for Cutty Sark and Balclutha (1886 ship). Exhibitions and scholarly works at venues including the National Maritime Museum, Maritime Museum of San Diego, and academic centers at University of Southampton and Maritime Archaeology Trust have highlighted her as emblematic of 19th-century sail commerce, migration, and imperial contact zones exemplified by incidents during the Second Opium War. Cultural references to Peking appear in maritime literature and documentary projects alongside treatments of the clipper trade, the Opium Wars, and the transition to steam exemplified by SS Great Eastern. Preservation debates have engaged heritage funders such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and international stakeholders from UNESCO when ships of her class are nominated for protection and interpretation.

Category:Ships built on the River Wear Category:Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom