Wreck of the Living Age

Extract

Among the papers presented to the Society by Mr. Gordon Dexter, whose death is noted in this issue of the Bulletin, are several communications relating to the Ship Living Age. This vessel was wrecked in 1855, shortly after leaving Shanghai, bound for New York with a cargo of teas. The story of the episode is of interest here because it not only recalls the dangerous adventures which were attached to sailing on the high seas in the nineteenth century but also the serious physical risks involved in foreign commerce less than a century ago, especially in the Pacific trade.