Sir Lancelot

This grisaille watercolour shows the three-masted sailing ship ‘Sir Lancelot’ in starboard broadside view, flying the house flag (a black and gold flying horse) of J McGunn & Co., Greenock. Another sailing ship is visible on the left and there is a junk on the right. Signed and dated by the artist, lower right, ‘W. Richards / 07’.

‘Sir Lancelot’ was built for J McGunn & Co by Robert Steele & Co. at Greenock and launched on 27 July 1865. The ship was employed as a tea clipper and, in the Clipper Race of 1869, set a new record between China and London with a total passage time of 89 days. Visram Ibrahim, India, took over ownership of ‘Sir Lancelot’ in 1886 and put the ship on the India-Mauritius trade. The ship was then purchased by Persian owners in 1895 and foundered on 1 October 1895 while on a voyage from the Red Sea with salt.

This watercolour was illustrated in Basil Lubbock, ‘The China Clippers’, 2nd ed. (Glasgow: James Brown & Son, 1914), p. 215.