AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING WEATHER STATION PRESUMED PRESENTED TO CAPTAIN JOHN HENDERSON, MASTER OF THE CLIPPER THERMOPYLÆ, 1882

with 7in. silvered clock and barometer dials signed CHADBURN & SON, LIVERPOOL flanking barograph drum and curved-bar thermometer, the clock with pendulum movement, contained in glazed case with drop front and brass label engraved THERMOPYLAE / IN COMMEMORATION / OF A FINE PASSAGE / 1882 -- 14 x 25 x 7½in. (36 x 63.5 x 19cm.)

Thermopylæ was built in Walter Hood's yards in Aberdeen in 1868 to the order of George Thompson & Co. of London. A splendid sea boat, she was fast in any weather and especially quick at going to windward. Launched on 19th August 1868, she sailed from Gravesend on her maiden voyage to Melbourne on 7th November the same year and anchored in Port Phillip after a record run of 60 days (pilot to pilot). In 1872 she beat Cutty Sark by seven days achieving 380 miles in one day, a then record. Continuing to make swift passages throughout the 1870s, she loaded her final tea cargo at Foochow in 1881, before being transferred to the Australian wool route under her new Master, John Henderson, who remained with her until 1884. In 1882 she achieved record timings of 73 and 77 days, although it's not known for which of these this splendid weather station was presented. In 1890 Thermopylæ was sold to Canadian owners for £5,000 and from 1892 to 1895 she was used in the trans-Pacific trade. In 1896 she was resold to the Portuguese Government, renamed Pedro Nunes, and put to work as a cadet training ship. Her condition deteriorated gradually and by 1907 her working life was over. On 13th October that year, she was towed out of the Tagus into the open sea and sunk by gunfire; it was a sad end for such a thoroughbred, but she was - and has remained - one of the legends of the age of sail.