Tea Time at the Pagoda Anchorage
John Horton (C.S.M.A., F.C.A.)
Fifteen minutes of Fuzhou lies Mawei, cradle of Chinese seamanship, and site of the famous Pagoda Anchorage. This celebrated anchorage, though considered the cradle of Chinese seafaring, was only frequented by Western shipping as China began to open up in the 1840s, and became famous from 1866 with the first of the great annual tea races to London. Sixteen clippers loaded there that year, sailing in late May and early June on the 16,000 mile voyage and taking a total of 99 days.
John Horton’s masterpiece captures the vivid and lively atmosphere at Pagoda Anchorage during the days of the tea trade. Below is the poetry of Cicely Fox Smith (1882-1954) who also felt drawn to the scenes at Pagoda as a source of inspiration and whose words compliment and capture the story that Horton unveils with this piece.
By The Old Pagoda Anchorage
Cicely Fox Smith (1882-1954)
By the old Pagoda Anchorage they lay full fifteen strong,
And their spars were like a forest, and their names were like a song
Fiery Cross and Falcon there
Lay with Spindrift, doomed and fair,
And Sir Lancelot of a hundred famous fights with wind and wave,
Belted Will and Hallowe’en
With Leander there were seen,
And Ariel and Titania and Robin Hood the brave…
Thyatira of the lovely name and proud Thermopylae,
By the old Pagoda Anchorage when clippers sailed the sea –
Racing home to London River –
Carry on for London River –
Crack her on for London River with her chests of China tea!
By the old Pagoda Anchorage (it’s many a year ago!)
A sight it was to see them with their decks like drifted snow,
And their brasses winking bright,
And the gleaming gold and white
Of the carven kings and maidens on each slim and soaring bow,
And the high and slender spars
Humming shanties to the stars,
And the hulls whose speed and staunchness are a dead man’s secret now, –
The ships so brave and beautiful that never more shall be,
By the old Pagoda Anchorage when clippers sailed the sea –
Racing home to London River –
Crack her on for London River –
Carry on for London River with her chests of China tea!