Serica

The Seres (Greek: Σῆρες, Latin: Seres) were inhabitants of the land Serica, named by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It meant "of silk," or people of the "land where silk comes from," and is thought to derive from the Chinese word for silk, si (Traditional Chinese: 絲; Simplified Chinese: 丝; pinyin: sī). It is itself at the origin of the Latin for "silk", sērĭcă.

The Seres and their country were named after the central product which sustained their industry, the "Ser" or Silkworm. Some classicists argued that it was extremely improbable that a nation would be named after an insect, and the 19th-century orientalist Christian Lassen identified them in the sacred books of the Hindus as the "Çaka, Tukhâra, and Kanka".

Mention of the Seres people, as the manufacturers and distributors of silk, is earlier than the country Serica. This made some historians believe that the Greco-Romans named the Chinese Sinae when approached from the Pacific Ocean but Seres when reached from the Asiatic steppes. Others contend that the Seres were a loose confederacy of Tocharian people, who traded with the Indians, the Chinese and, through the Parthians and later the Sassanid Persians, the Romans.

Serica (clipper)

The Serica was a clipper ship built in 1863 by Robert Steele & Co., at Greenock on the south bank of the Clyde, Scotland, for James Findlay.

Winner of 1864 Tea Race

Serica is Latin for "China"-- the ship was built expressly for the China tea trade. The Serica participated in the annual "tea races" to bring the new season's crop to London; she won in 1864 and finished second in 1865, and in The Great Tea Race of 1866 came in third, by a matter of hours.

Sailing performance

According to Lubbock, the tea clippers Serica, Fiery Cross, Lahloo and Taeping performed at their best in light breezes, as they were all rigged with single topsails.

Loss of the ship

On her final voyage under Capt. George Innes, she left Hong Kong bound for Montevideo, 2 November 1872, and was wrecked on the Paracels, in the South China Sea the following day. Out of a crew of twenty-three that manned her, only one survived.

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