Talk:Great Tea Race of 1872

This article was nominated for deletion on 31 July 2023. The result of the discussion was keep.

Article name

Do we have any references to justify the article name? Firstly this is just a race between two ships, whilst in other years a number of ships could be judged to be racing to be the first ship home with a cargo from the new crop. The first ship home in 1872 was actually Titania, arriving in London on 19 September. Secondly, where does the word "Great" come from? It is applied to the Great Tea Race of 1866 because of the unusually close race between several ships. The word "Great" is to differentiate that year's race from all the others.

I think we need a considered discussion as to what this article should be called. I am sure in my own mind that the current title should be replaced. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 12:29, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Reasons for article deletion

The article title is wrong. There was no "Great Tea Race" between sailing vessels in 1872. The term was, however, applied to steamships in the tea trade at about this time. See, for instance, [1] This is the only instance that I can find of this term appearing in the British Newspaper archive for the period 1871 to 1873. This contrasts with the extensive newspaper coverage of sailing ships racing from the tea ports in 1866. So not only had the term fallen from significant use, but when used it applied to something else.

The article content, in so much as it is supported by sources, is already covered in both Cutty Sark and Thermopylae. There really is not a great deal more to say about the matter.

I appreciate that I have recently removed some of the article's sources because they were not RSs, as well as some of the content derived from them. There is also one failed verification that has just been added. ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 11:15, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, thanks for your participation. If you want, give a different title to the article there by year. I'm busy at work right now. Товболатов (talk) 22:22, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

To quote David R MacGregor, the definitive historian on tea clippers, "By 1870 the tea races were really over..." (The Tea Clippers, David R MacGregor, pg 215). MacGregor is the definitive historian on this subject. ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 21:13, 17 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]