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"Sylph was a clipper ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1831 for the Parsi merchant Rustomjee Cowasjee. After her purchase by the Hong Kong- based merchant house Jardine Matheson, in 1833 Sylph set a speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Her primary role was to transport opium between various ports in the Far East. She disappeared en route to Singapore in 1849. History Sylph was designed in London by Sir Robert Seppings, surveyor of the Royal Navy, to the order of a consortium of Calcutta merchants headed by Rustomjee Cowasjee. Two contemporary paintings of Sylph show her to have been a heavily rigged ship with trysails on each mast and a tall, high-peaked spanker. Sleek, elegant, functional and devoid of ornament, Sylph did not have the rakish lines of the later clippers, yet proved to be particularly swift. She is supposed to have run from the Sandheads to Macao in sixteen days. In 1833 Jardines sent Sylph to explore the profitability of trading along the Chinese coast. Arriving at Macao in September, Sylph unloaded some of the opium she had transported from Calcutta and immediately departed northwards with the German Protestant missionary Karl Gützlaff on board as translator. During the First Opium War (1839-1842) Jardines were offered a premium price for the ship, an offer that was declined on the basis of the huge profits she made from transporting opium. Sylph and another well-known clipper, Cowasjee Family, were fitted out with extra guns and full European crews during the war, and were joined by the Lady Hayes, belonging to Jardine, Matheson & Co., the three ships sailing in company. While they were sailing among the islands Chinese war junks surrounded them and a fierce battle ensued. But Captains Wallace and Vice, of Sylph and Cowasjee Family, were two of the most experienced captains in the trade, celebrated for their daring and success in dealing with pirates, and the war junks suffered a severe defeat, many of them being sunk; after which the opium clippers had no more trouble. The opium clipper Sylph salvaged by the sloop Clive, by Huggins While sailing from Calcutta to China and carrying 995 chests of opium, Sylph ran aground on a shoal off the Malay Peninsula on January 30, 1835. According to the Canton Register dated April 14, 1835, Captain Wallace told the vessel's insurers that she had been swamped, then beached by the northeast monsoon.Canton Register (Vol. 8 No. 15), Tuesday, 14 April 1835 p. 62 The East Indiaman Clive came to the rescue and the ship and all but two chests of opium were recovered. After undergoing re-rigging in Hong Kong in 1848 at a cost of 11,166.22 Mexican dollars, Sylph disappeared en route to Singapore the following year, possibly captured and burned by pirates based on Hainan Island. Other sources believe that she was wrecked on the rocks of Pedra Branca off the coast of Singapore whilst carrying a cargo of opium to the value of 557,200 Spanish dollars. CitationsReferences * Online version at Google Books * *Phipps, John, (of the Master Attendant's Office, Calcutta), (1840) A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time .... (Scott), Further reading * Extensive coverage of Sylph's sailing career. Category:Opium clippers Category:Individual sailing vessels Category:Merchant ships of India Category:Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Category:Ships built in India Category:History of Hong Kong Category:Missing ships Category:1831 ships Category:Ships lost with all hands Category:Maritime incidents in January 1835 Category:Maritime incidents in 1849 "
"Grinsdale is a village and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Beaumont, in the Carlisle district, in the English county of Cumbria. Grinsdale has a church called St Kentigern's Church. It is the source of the surname. It is also beside the River Eden. The civil parish was merged into Beaumont in 1934. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 161. Grinsdale lies beside the river Eden near Carlisle. Four Roman military marching camps were set up in the area. The rich loamy soil encouraged farming around Grinsdale. Linen manufacture and weaving once provided employment in the hamlet. Grinsdale's church, St Kentigern, was built in 1740 outside the village and just above the river on the site where a 12th-century church once stood. It has a small west tower, a three-bay nave, and a two-bay chancel with arched windows. The church was restored in 1895. This place gave name to a family who held Grinsdale under the Barony of Burgh.'Parishes: Edenhall - Grinsdale', Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland (1816), pp. 100–109. Date accessed: 24 April 2012. The elder line failed about King John's time, when the co-heiresses married Newton and Le-Sor. Newton's lands passed by successive marriages to Martindale and Dacre, and having been forfeited to the crown, were granted to Whitmore, and passed by sale to the Dacre family of Kirklinton. A younger brother continued the male line of the family of Grinsdale, and some of his posterity represented the city and the county in parliament. This branch became extinct about the reign of Henry IV when the co-heiresses sold their lands in Grinsdale to the Dentons, of whom they were purchased by the Lowthers about the year 1686. This estate passed to the Earl of Lonsdale, who was Lord Paramount of the manor, as parcel of his Barony of Burgh. The church of Grinsdale was given by Hugh de Morville to the priory of Lanercost, and became appropriated to that monastery. King Edward VI granted the rectory of Grinsdale to Sir Thomas Dacre; the great tithes were sold by the Dacre family in 1751, to the respective landholders. The church, which had been many years totally in ruins, was rebuilt about the year 1743 by Joseph Dacre at his own expense. The Hadrian's Wall Path passes the church, on its way from Carlisle to Bowness-on-Solway via Kirkandrews-on-Eden, Beaumont, Cumbria and Burgh-by-Sands. The site of Milecastle 69 on Hadrian's Wall is thought to lie close to the village. See also *Listed buildings in Beaumont, Cumbria ReferencesExternal links Category:Villages in Cumbria Category:Former civil parishes in Cumbria Category:Beaumont, Cumbria "
"Girls' Night is a 1998 British comedy-drama directed by Nick Hurran. Loosely based upon the real experiences of writer Kay Mellor, the film stars Julie Walters and Brenda Blethyn as two sisters-in-law, one dying of cancer, who fulfil a lifelong dream of going to Las Vegas, Nevada, after an unexpected jackpot win on the bingo. Premiered to a mixed response by critics at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, who noted it a "rather formulaic tearjerker [with] two powerhouse Brit actresses", Hurran won a Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival and received a Golden Bear nomination at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival for his work. Cast *Julie Walters — Jackie Simpson *Brenda Blethyn — Dawn Wilkinson *Kris Kristofferson — Cody *Philip Jackson — Dave Simpson *George Costigan — Steve Wilkinson *Anthony Lewis — Mathew Wilkinson *Maxine Peake — Sharon *James Gaddas — Paul *Judith Barker — Helen *Sue Cleaver — Rita *Meera Syal — Carmen *Sophie Stanton — Jane *Fine Time Fontayne — Ken *Brent Huff — Bobby Joe *Nigel Whitmey — Tyrone *Kathryn Hunt — nurse ReferencesExternal links * Category:1998 films Category:British films Category:British comedy-drama films Category:1998 comedy-drama films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Nick Hurran Category:Films scored by Edward Shearmur "