Thermopylae

The famous tea-clipper Thermopylae, was built 1868 by Walter Hood in Aberdeen, Scotland. Thermopylae was known as one of the fastest clipper ever. An awesome competition was between Thermopylae and Cutty Sark, another famous British tea-clipper of similar size. After the opening of the Suez-Canal in 1869 steamers took over from the sailing ships carrying the tea from India to England. Thermopylae was then used for transport of lumber and one of its voyages from London to Melbourne, Australia, took but 59 days and another, between Newcastle, England and Shanghai, China, took 28 days - both a record that stood for a long time. Theropylae could reach a speed of 20 miles per hour - no steamer could match its speed but in dead calm wind. A legend told that Thermopylae did not require but such a light breeze to reach 7 miles speed that it was possible to walk the deck with a burning candle. The Portuguese Navy bought Thermopylae and used it as a training-ship for a while or until it was destroyed by a torpedo in an exercise in 1907. This picture is of a painting by the Dutch artist Cornelis de Vries as printed in the book "Great Classic Sailing Ships", by author Kenneth Giggal. That book, in a grand format and with English text, is of exceptional quality containing the brief history along with remarkable illustrations of many of the grandest sailing ships until the third decade of the 20th Century.