Norman Court was a composite built clipper ship, designed by William Rennie, measuring 197.4 ft x 33 ft x 20 ft, of 833.87 tons net. The ship was built in 1869 by A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow. On the night of 29 March 1883 in a strong gale it was driven ashore and wrecked in Cymyran Bay, between Rhoscolyn and Rhosneigr, Anglesey. All bar two of the crew were saved by lifeboats from nearby Holyhead. Andrew Shewan was captain of the Norman Court from its launch until he retired in ill-health in 1873, following an extraordinarily difficult passage from China. His son, also Andrew Shewan, who had previously sailed as first mate, became captain. It was this son Andrew Shewan who recounted many tales of the ship and of the clipper ships in his book Great Days Of Sail: Reminiscences of a Tea Clipper Captain, published in 1926 when he could plausibly claim to be the last surviving tea clipper captain. He died in December 1927.
Famous quotes containing the words norman and/or court:
“Do you rumba? Well, take a rumba from one to ten!”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Arthur Sheekman, Will Johnstone, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Monkey Business, proposition to his dance partner (1931)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)