British Tea Clipper Lahloo in Light Airs

gouache, 10 1/2" x 15"

$4,000

The painting depicts the extreme, composite-built British tea clipper Lahloo in an unwanted situation:  she is almost becalmed in light airs.  The captain has ordered extra canvas aloft (the various studding sails on the fore & main masts and under the bowsprit) in hopes of capturing every and any breath of wind to push the ship along. 

Lahloo was built in 1867 specifically for the China tea trade and she was driven hard from the start.  However, her racing days were all too brief.  On her third voyage from China in 1872 she was wrecked in the Sunda Islands, bound from Shanghai to London laden with tea.