Lammermuir Party
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The Lammermuir Party ( May 26, 1866 – September 30, 1866), was a British Protestant Christian group of missionaries to China with the China Inland Mission led by James Hudson Taylor, who were identified with the tea clipper that brought them to China – the Lammermuir (clipper). Mission historians have indicated that this event was a turning point in the history of missionary work in China in the 1800’s. This was the largest party of Protestant missionaries to date to arrive at one time on Chinese shores. It was also noteworthy that none of the members of the mission were ordained as ministers, and only 2 had any previous overseas experience. In addition to this there were among them 9 unmarried women traveling to a place where single European women were rare for many reasons.
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[edit] Four month voyage
In the cool morning air of May 26th, 1866 the bright sun rose on 34 sailors and 18 missionaries with 4 children who boarded the Lammermuir which lay tied up to the East India Docks of London. It was only a 2 year old clipper ship with 3 masts and square-rigged sails. Her frame was built of iron and by the standard of the day she was a first class sailing vessel. A voyage halfway around the world would only take 4 months – a fast trip – compared to the 6 month duration of some of the older ships of the decade previous.
Henry Grattan Guinness wrote a hymn in honor of their departure that echoed Hudson Taylor’s 1865 book "China's Spiritual Need and Claims":
Over the dark blue sea, over the trackless flood, A little band is gone in the service of their God; The lonely waste of waters they traverse to proclaim In the distant land of Sinim, Immanuel’s saving Name. They have heard from the far-off East the voice of their brothers’ blood: A million a month in China are dying without God.
| Part of a series on Protestant missions to China |
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Background |
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People |
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Missionary agencies |
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Works |
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Pivotal events |
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Chinese Protestants |
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The Lammermuir was nearly wrecked by 2 typhoons before limping into the Shanghai harbor in late September. Emily Blatchley wrote:
Until we reached Java we had made our journey in much peace ; since then we have been experiencing the strength of God’s care, the joy of trusting Him, in the midst of storm and tempest…It was on Tuesday, August 28th, that we landed at Anjer. Next morning we weighed anchor, and during that day and the following we were passing, with a fair breeze, the beautiful islands of the Java Sea, and reached the entrance of the Gaspar Straits by sunset on Thursday. It is unsafe to pass through these straits at night ; we therefore dropped anchor and waited. When day dawned we found that in the darkness we had been brought up by our anchor only a few hundred yards from a rock, towards which the current was setting so strongly that we had not a little difficulty in getting away. This was accomplished in safety, however, and the same afternoon we passed Gaspar Island, and entered the South China Sea. The next day, Saturday, we recrossed the line (Equator). I need scarcely add that it was intensely hot. We were all tired and languid, and some of us quite unwell, from having drunk Java water…
Saturday, September 8th, was set apart for prayer and fasting, for at that time we were expecting to reach Shanghai in a bout a week. We had united prayer in the morning, and Mr. Taylor read from Ezra vii and viii. Again in the afternoon we met, and considered Neh. Xi. The next day, supposing it to be our last Sabbath on board, we held farewell services, in the evening taking, as we thought, our final united Communion with the Christians of the crew. That night the sunset was not only different from anything we had seen before, but was altogether of a strange, unnatural aspect. A gloomy, conscious-seeming frown was over the whole sky, and about the sun itself the clouds hung heavily. Darkness came on, and we partook of the LORD’S Supper, as I have said.
On Monday morning the sun rose as usual, and the wind was fair ; but in the afternoon the weather became squally. The wind increased, the barometer glass was steadily falling, and before long it was only too clear that we were on the outskirts of a typhoon. The night was fearfully rough, with a wild sea, the rain descending as if the very clouds were coming down bodily, while the raging of the wind made it exceedingly difficult to pass orders. More than once the whole watch were nearly carried overboard by the heavy seas that swept the deck. In the darkness very little could be done ; we could only wait and commend ourselves, and more especially the crew, to God’s keeping. All Tuesday the glass continued to fall, and the wind and sea were unabated. But we were beginning to hope, from the direction of the wind, that we were on the outer edge of the typhoon- I mean beyond its orbit. On Wednesday the sun was visible, the rain ceased, and the glass was no longer falling. We were safe ; we had a fair wind, and towards noon sighted Formosa. It so happened that we had been helped on our course rather than hindered by the typhoon, and we renewed our hopes of reaching Shanghai on the following Saturday.
Jennie Faulding continues the story: :
September 12th: Almost all the sails had to be furled and the things washed about the main deck in utter confusion; dogs, sheep, geese and fowls all got drenched continually and narrowly escaped with their lives. It poured in torrents and the sea came over the poop and got into the saloon till there was hardly a dry place anywhere. It was impossible to sleep in bed…until this morning; …we thought it not at all impossible that the vessel might be lost, the largest boat was washed away, the ship was put before the wind…the sea was very grand but I have no desire to be in another typhoon…I didn’t feel frightened but my head ached and it was so thoroughly uncomfortable.
Again, Emily wrote: :
But all Thursday a strong gale blew right ahead, with a tremendous sea, and we were driven due east, whereas our course lay almost due north. This gale continued throughout Friday. We were now among the shoals and breakers ; heavy seas were continually sweeping our decks, and loosening things from their lashings ; the sailors were many of them ill ; the storm we had passed through had already weakened the ship, and made her very unfit to meet another gale ; and were all feeling worn out with want of rest, with perpetual tossing, our wet clothes, etc. and longing to reach our desired haven. We were, indeed, within a couple of days’ good run of Shanghai ; but the wind still continued adverse, and we were constantly tacking, with the prospect of having to beat all up the China Sea in the teeth of a north-east simoon.
At last with eager eyes, on Tuesday, September 18th, we sighted FU-KIEN (Fujian). The waters were becoming pale, earnest of our approach to the mouth of the Yang-tse (Yangtze); but we were still beating to windward, and continued to do so all Wednesday, and not only made no progress, but failed even to hold our own. It was tedious work ; but we kept up hope and courage, cheering our weariness by constant communion with Him who is our refuge and salvation. Many an old familiar hymn had an intensified meaning for us now. While the winds raged we sang ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul', ‘Rock of Ages,’ ‘O God our Help in Ages Past,’ and others.
We could not always get our voices to rise above the storm ; but at least they mingled with it, and they and it together praised GOD. In the night especially we had prayer, because the darkness prevented much from being done or attempted about the ship. Of course rest was out of the question when the tempests were upon us, for we were tossed up and down by the waves as if our great ship had been a mere nothing ;-now up on the crest of a billow, then deep in some watery valley ; now lying on our port, then on our starboard side, literally dipping the yard-ends into the sea ; and then plunging forward with the forecastle right under the water. In this condition we were wearing much for land, and land was not far off ; but the wind was against us, and on Friday night it increased to a stiffer gale than any we had had before. It would have been with very despairing feelings that we watched the change, but for the assurance that GOD’S arm was closely round us, and at the same time ruling all powers. Some of the sailors, however, were beginning to relinquish all hope of reaching land. The captain also was ill, having one side of his head and face paralysed (paralysis). That Friday night we shall not soon forget. We had been carrying a good deal of sail, quite unprepared for a storm. Now the wind was reefing our sails for us, after its own fashion, and in the darkness we could do nothing. Our starboard bulwarks were washed away, leaving a wide and free entrée for the waves, which thenceforth kept up a continual surging sea upon the main-deck. Early on Saturday morning the jib-boom was carried away ; the fore-topmast did not stand long after that was gone; then the main-topmast was broken off, and hung over us, threatening every minute to fall and stave in the deck or the side of the vessel. But still we had no suspicion of its being another typhoon until, in the afternoon, the wind began slightly to veer ; and then the sailors gave up hope. Our decks were in a fearful state, and the heavy seas rolling over them made it perilous to attempt to secure the great spars, casks, etc., which had been washed loose, and were threatening much harm to the ship, from the force with which the water dashed them about.
Hudson Taylor recalled the most perilous time in the voyage:
“The appearance of things was now truly terrific. Rolling fearfully, the masts and yards hanging down were tearing our only sail... and battering like a ram against the main yard. The deck from forecastle to poop was one scarcely broken sea. The roar of the water, the clanging of chains, the beating of the dangling masts and yards, the sharp smack of the torn sails made it almost impossible to hear any orders that might be given.”
Emily noted: :
Mr. Taylor went on deck and talked to the men, seeking to cheer and inspire them with new courage. At ten o’clock that night (Saturday) our mizzen top-mast followed the others.
A vessel was seen ahead ; but GOD saved us from coming into collision. For the first time since we left home the rest of our Sabbath was broken. All were busily engaged in getting the vessel into sailing condition, which it was very difficult to do with a heavy sea on. We found ourselves to be in a worse plight than we had even supposed. We had shipped a great deal of water, and were doing so still, with a suspicion that somewhere the side of the vessel was sprung. The pumps would not work; and on Monday, although the worst of all the storm was over, we had the most anxious time of all. Everyone was so thoroughly tired. The pumps, which we had managed to clear and to use for a while-ladies and all helping-were again out of order; and the question at last was seriously raised as to whether a boat could live. In such a sea it looked impossible; and our life-belts, which we had in readiness, could have been of but very little service.
Well, this long alternation of hope and fear at last drew to an end. You can imagine with what relief of mind and thankful joy we saw the sun rise clearly, and felt the hurricane to have subsided to a quiet breeze. From our heart of hearts we echoed the Psalmist’s words, ‘Then are they glad because they be quiet’; and for the completion of that verse we waited hopefully. The main-mast, which had worked loose in wrestling with the wind, was secured; and with patience we got the ship lightened of water. With slow, careful sailing we pursued our course-by tacking, however-and on Friday, the 28th, we passed the Saddle Islands. The same evening a pilot came on board, but he did not venture to take us in before Sunday morning, when a steam-tug boat came and brought us up to Shanghai.
Our broken and dismantled condition made us an object of general curiosity; but we, in our hearts, thanked GOD for the great deliverance He had wrought for us in sparing the lives of all on board in such unusual peril-peril arising not only from the oversweeping waters themselves, but from the frequent falling of splintered yards, etc. But although Mr. Taylor had plenty of surgical practice with severe bruises and such-like hurts, not one life was lost, nor were any limbs broken. It is needless to say there were many narrow escapes. A vessel came in soon after we did, which had passed through the same typhoon, but only six lives remained out of twenty-two; sixteen had been drowned! It was well that we got in on the day we did, for they had some terribly stiff gales outside, which in our disabled condition we could scarcely have weathered.
The feeling of our hearts when the storm subsided was that we had been brought back from the verge of the grave that we might devote ourselves afresh to God…. May we live as those who are alive from the dead.
Hudson Taylor wrote after twelve days of this experience: :
And for three days after that the danger only increased, as the ship was making water fast. Fires were all out and cooking was impossible. For a time no drinking water was obtainable, and the women as well as the men worked at the pumps. But through it all prayer was so wonderfully answered that no lives were lost or serious injuries sustained.
The badly damaged ship caused a local stir in Shanghai because it was so badly damaged. Even more so, the intent of the passengers to don Chinese clothes and embark into the interior of China with single women among them caused a greater consternation among the “Westerners” in China. This led to the agency being referred to by some as "The Pigtail Mission".
[edit] List of Missionaries and children
- James Hudson Taylor
- Mrs. Maria Jane Taylor (Maria Jane Dyer) (died of cholera 4 years later - 1870)
- Grace Dyer Taylor (died of meningitis in the first year - 1867)
- Herbert Hudson Taylor
- Frederick Howard Taylor
- Samuel Dyer Taylor (died less than 4 years later of tuberculosis in 1870)
- Lewis Nicol, Arbroath
- Mrs. Eliza Calder Nicol
- George Duncan (missionary), Banffshire (died seven years later in 1873)
- Josiah Alexander Jackson, Kingsland
- William David Rudland, Eversden
- John Robert Sell, Romford (died of smallpox in the first year - 1867)
- James Williamson (missionary), Arbroath
- Susan Barnes, Limerick
- Mary Elizabeth Bausum, Walthamstow
- Emily Blatchley, London (died of tuberculosis eight years later in 1874)
- Mary Bell, Epping (later married William David Rudland - she died in 1873 of tuberculosis)
- Mary Bowyer, London (later married Frederick W. Baller)
- Louise Desgraz, Liverpool and Switzerland
- Jane Elizabeth Faulding, London (later second wife of Hudson Taylor)
- Jane McLean, Inverness
- Elisabeth Rose, Barnsley (later married James Joseph Meadows)
[edit] Chronology of Voyage
- Departed East India Docks, London Saturday, 26 May 1866
- Last sight of England is Start Point Lighthouse, Devon
- June 3 near Cape Finnisterre
- June 12 near Canary Islands
- June 18 near Cape Verde Islands
- June Atlantic Ocean doldrums
- abt. July 7 near Trinidad Island
- pass great Tea clipper race Fiery Cross (clipper), Taeping (clipper), Ariel (clipper), Serica (clipper), & Taistsing (clipper)(later 3 others) bound for London
- pass Belted Will (clipper), Flying Spur (clipper) bound for London
- sighting Cape Town lighthouse
- passing the Min (clipper), Falcon (clipper) bound for London
- conversion of many of crew to Christianity
- Friday, early AM, Aug 3rd Taylor wakes several to tell of First Mate Brunton’s conversion
- Saturday, Aug 4 heavy seas – Sternsail boom breaks and hits William Carron. Jennie Faulding talks with Grace Taylor and it is evident that she has had a Christian conversion experience
- abt. Aug 14 near Amsterdam Island
- sighting flying fish in Indian Ocean
- Monday, Aug 27 Sunda strait past Mt. Krakatoa
- Tuesday, August 28 1866 Anjer Roads, Java: shore leave & baptism service
- Friday, Aug 31 Selat Gelasa (Gaspar Strait) (past wrecks of other ships including the Lammermuir (first) (clipper))
- Saturday, Sept. 1 South China Sea cross Equator
- Sep 10-14: 1st Typhoon in the East China Sea
- Sept 14-19 Stormy detour around Taiwan
- Monday, Sept 18 near Fujian coast
- Sept 20-24 Second Typhoon in Pacific Ocean nearly wrecks the ship
- Sept 21 bulwarks gone
- Sept 22 all 3 topmasts gone
- Sept 23 Hudson Taylor kisses children and then goes out in storm to help crew
- Sept 28 near Ma-an Liedao (Saddle Islands)
- The Lammermuir arrived 29 September 1866 near Wusong, China
- 30 Sept arrived Shanghai
[edit] External links
- Overseas Missionary Fellowship
- Christian Biography Resources
- http://www.missionaryetexts.org/
- http://www.genealogy.com/users/y/o/r/Brian-York-Burnsville/?Welcome=1091209026
