The
Sin Nanzing, new China clipper, 1870. 'The first British
merchant-vessel that has made the voyage to India by passing through the
Suez Canal is the new paddle steam-ship Sin Nanzing...[She] left
Greenock on Nov. 11, stopped three days at Gibraltar for coal, and...was
off Port Said on the 29th...on Dec. 1...[she] went into the Canal...and
arrived at Suez on Dec. 3...[She left the same day] and reached Bombay
in twelve days ten hours. The whole voyage from Greenock to Bombay thus
occupied thirty-six days. In the opinion of Captain James Blow, marine
superintendent of the North China Steam-Ship Company, who was on board
the Sin Nanzing, steam-vessels can be made to convey troops from England
to India, by the Suez Canal, in twenty-one days. He states...that he
would undertake to carry out 600 soldiers on board the Sin Nanzing in
twenty-five days, instead of seventy-five, the average time of their
voyage round the Cape during the Indian mutiny; and that the cost would
be only half as much...[He] invites the British and Indian taxpayers to
consider whether we still want to keep so large a European army
stationed in India...the Sin Nanzing...was built and her engines were
made by Mr. John Elder, of Glasgow, for Messrs. Trautmann and Co.'. From
"Illustrated London News", 1870. Creator: Unknown. (Photo by The Print
Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)
