Mirage - a general history

Completed January 1855; Official No. 12962; Code Letters LFBD.

Owners: Smith & Co, London; January 1857 A Orr, James Ewing & Co, Liverpool; 1867 Robert Smith (Leadenhall St, London) Liverpool; March 1868 Ardasir Cursetjee Carnajee, Hong Kong; 1870 Kwok Apov Acheong, Hong Kong.

Masters: 1855-56 James George Carter (C.N.1156 London 1846); 1857 James Ewing; 1857-64 John Roberts; 1864-65 J Campbell; 1866-68 William Taylor; 1869 John W Finch.

Mirage was the first vessel built by John Pile at his West Hartlepool yard & she was also the first vessel to take a full cargo of Manchester goods from West Hartlepool to China direct. On her second voyage she sailed from Liverpool to Bombay in 81 days & from Tuticorin back to Liverpool in 77 days, the fastest on record at that time, & in 1861 she set the North East Monsoon Run record of ten days for the voyage between Jochow & Anjer.

Voyages: 14 September 1855 left Shanghai with tea, 25 October passed Anjer, arrived London 22 January 1856; from St Michaels arrived Gravesend 3 April 1856; 13 April 1856 left London for Bombay; 11 June 1856 left London for Cardiff; 4 March 1857 spoken with in 2N20W from Liverpool for Shanghai; 13 August 1857 left Shanghai, arrived London 18 December 1857; 7 August 1858 left Shanghai, arrived Gravesend 17 December 1858; from St Michaels arrived Gravesend 20 January 1859; 21 October 1859 left Whampoa, arrived London 1 February 1860; 31 January 1860 passed in tow from Canton for London; 13 November 1860 left Foochow, arrived London 28 February 1861;  27 November 1861 left Foochow, arrived Anjer 7 December 1861, arrived New York 27 February 1862; 20 March 1862 off the port of Liverpool; 15 November 1862 left Hong Kong,  arrived Gravesend 27 February 1862; 1 March 1864 bound from Woosung (in tow); 1869 London for India.

Mirage sailed from Bangkok on 20 May 1871 bound for Hong Kong & was wrecked at Tyho (meaning big inlet) on the island of Lantoa (or Lantao) in the China Sea on 7 June 1871. An account in the Overland China Mail gave a different date of 17 June & that she was abandoned near Tyho, Lantao Island when her pumps became choked with the rice cargo that she was carrying. No lives were lost.

On 7 July 1871 the Hong Kong steamer Yottang visited the wreck. The once proud Mirage was lying over on one side with little of her decks to be seen above water. Her masts had been sawn off & deck planks, copper fastenings & anything movable had been taken by the natives. The owner sent persons to negotiate with the natives, who would probably have been poor Chinese fishermen, for the items they had plundered. The wreck was said to be worth £6000 but the expense of getting it off & towed into port would not be profitable. Although she was posted as totally lost in Lloyd’s list of 26 June 1871, in Lloyd’s Register of 1872/73 she was still listed as being owned by Ewing & Co of Liverpool & with a notation in the margin ‘wrecked.’

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