In 1859 quite a new type of China tea clipper appeared in Great Britain. The first of these beautiful vessels was the _Falcon_, built by Robert Steele & Son, at Greenock, and owned by Shaw, Maxton & Co. She was a wooden vessel of 937 tons register; length 191 feet 4 inches, breadth 32 feet 2 inches, depth 20 feet 2 inches, and was commanded by Captain Maxton, who had been in command of the _Lord of the Isles_. The _Falcon_ was the first of the really handsome tea clippers sailing out of London. Like her, the _Fiery Cross_, built by Chalour & Co., of Liverpool, in 1860; the _Min_, by Robert Steele & Son, of Greenock, and the _Kelso_, by William Pile, of Sunderland, in 1861; the _Belted Will_, by Feel & Co., of Workington, and the _Serica_, by Robert Steele & Son, in 1863 were all wooden ships sheathed with red copper. The _Fiery Cross_, the largest of these, was only 888 tons. They were all beautiful vessels of an entirely original type and with nothing about them to remind one of the American clippers; for they had considerably less sheer, much less freeboard, and lower bulwarks, and their comparatively small breadth gave them a slim, graceful appearance. These ships and the tea clippers which followed them had very clear decks for working ship. The deck-houses were small, and with the rails, bulwarks, waterways, bitts, hatch-coamings, companions, and skylights were of India teak varnished; the decks, also of India teak, were holystoned; and this, with the polished brasswork and the spare spars lashed amidships, made them very smart and shipshape. The tea-trade in the early sixties was comparatively small, and did not require many vessels, but speed in the delivery of new teas was of the utmost importance, and it was this demand that brought these clippers into existence. They were designed with great skill for this special purpose, and as they invariably sailed from China with new teas during the southwest monsoon, it was necessary that they should be smart in moderate weather going to windward, as well as in getting through the northeast trades in the Atlantic. It was under these conditions that they did their best work. They did not carry as heavy spars nor as much canvas as the American clippers of the same length, and probably could not have done so to advantage, as their breadth was considerably less, and with their easy lines they did not require much canvas to drive them. They were remarkably fast in light and moderate winds, and made fine averages rather than exceptional daily records of speed, none of them reaching the extreme speed of many of the sharper and more powerful American clipper ships. Only twenty-five or thirty of these vessels were built from first to last, and not more than four or five in any one year. A list of the most celebrated of them will be found in Appendix III.