Editing Clipper (section)

==Decline==

[[File:US clipper build graph.pdf|thumb|upright=1.75|A graph of the number of clippers built in the USA each year in the 1850s: This closely follows the economic situation.{{r|MacGregor 1993|p=14}}]]The American clippers sailing from the East Coast to the California goldfields were working in a booming market. Freight rates were high everywhere in the first years of the 1850s. This started to fade in late 1853. The ports of California and Australia reported that they were overstocked with goods that had been shipped earlier in the year. This gave an accelerating fall in freight rates that was halted, however, by the start of the [[Crimean War]] in March 1854, as many ships were now being chartered by the French and British governments. The end of the Crimean War in April 1856 released all this capacity back on the world shipping markets{{snd}}the result being a severe slump. The next year had the [[Panic of 1857]], with effects on both sides of the Atlantic. The United States was just starting to recover from this in 1861 when the [[American Civil War]] started, causing significant disruption to trade in both Union and Confederate states.{{r|MacGregor 1993|pp=14–15}}
As the economic situation deteriorated in 1853, American shipowners either did not order new vessels, or specified an ordinary clipper or a medium clipper instead of an extreme clipper. No extreme clipper was launched in an American shipyard after the end of 1854 and only a few medium clippers after 1860.

By contrast, British trade recovered well at the end of the 1850s. Tea clippers had continued to be launched during the depressed years, apparently little affected by the economic downturn.{{r|MacGregor 1993|p=15}} The long-distance route to China was not realistically challenged by steamships in the early part of the 1860s. No true steamer (as opposed to an auxiliary steamship) had the [[fuel efficiency]] to carry sufficient cargo to make a profitable voyage. The auxiliary steamships struggled to make any profit.

[[File:StateLibQld 1 133053 Agamemnon (ship).jpg|thumb|SS ''Agamemnon'', the first steamer with the fuel efficiency to challenge sailing vessels on the long-distance route from Britain (or the East Coast US) to the China tea ports]]
The situation changed in 1866 when the [[Alfred Holt]]-designed and owned [[SS Agamemnon (1865)|SS ''Agamemnon'']] made her first voyage to China. Holt had persuaded the [[Board of Trade]] to allow higher steam pressures in British merchant vessels. Running at 60&nbsp;[[Pounds per square inch|psi]] instead of the previously permitted 25&nbsp;psi, and using an efficient [[Compound steam engine|compound engine]], ''Agamemnon'' had the fuel efficiency to steam at 10&nbsp;knots to China and back, with coaling stops at Mauritius on the outward and return legs{{snd}}crucially carrying sufficient cargo to make a profit.<ref name="Jarvis">{{cite book |last=Jarvis|first=Adrian|editor1-first=Robert|editor1-last= Gardiner|editor2-first=Dr. Basil|editor2-last= Greenhill
|title=The Advent of Steam – The Merchant Steamship before 1900 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press Ltd |year=1993 |pages=158–159|chapter=Chapter 9: Alfred Holt and the Compound Engine |isbn=0-85177-563-2}}</ref>

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, giving steamships a route about {{convert|3000|nmi}} shorter than that taken by sailing ships round the Cape of Good Hope. Despite initial conservatism by tea merchants, by 1871, tea clippers found strong competition from steamers in the tea ports of China. A typical passage time back to London for a steamer was 58 days, while the fastest clippers could occasionally make the trip in less than 100 days; the average was 123 days in the 1867–68 tea season.<ref name="clark332" /><ref name="Greenwich" /><ref name="MacGregor 1983" />{{rp|225–243}} The freight rate for a steamer in 1871 was roughly double that paid to a sailing vessel. Some clipper owners were severely caught out by this; several extreme clippers had been launched in 1869, including ''Cutty Sark'', ''Norman Court'' and ''Caliph''.{{efn|Caution is needed in interpreting Basil Lubbock's count of the number of extreme clippers launched in 1869. He states there were 25, but apparently without evidence such as having sight of reliable plans or half models. MacGregor stated that at least five of those in Lubbock's list were medium clippers, thereby calling into question the categorisation of the others.<ref name="MacGregor 1998" />{{rp|253}}}}[[File:SV City Adelaide Dutton Lithograph.jpg|right|thumb|''City of Adelaide'' (1864)]]