SS Erl King (1865)
The SS Erl King was built at A and J Inglis, Pointhouse, Glasgow and launched in 1865 and owned by Robertson & Co London.The tea clippers, if able to load a cargo early, would race against each other, often with a premium payment written into the bills of lading for the winning ship.[4] The merchants who had promised the 10 shillings a ton premium to the winning sailing vessel therefore lost out, not only because so many race participants had arrived at the same time, but because "new crop" tea from the Erl King had already been on the market for well over a week.On her 1866 passage from China, these included the wife of Captain MacKinnon, master of the Taeping, one of the two clippers that tied first place in the Tea Race that year.She gave birth to a baby boy whilst the Erl King was "about 4 days sail from Cape de Verde".