The Colonial Clippers

Here are a few of her best:—

On her third voyage she encountered the cyclone of 31st October, 1876, near the Sandheads. Captain E. C. Bennett, foreseeing the approach of the cyclone, stood over to the east side of the Bay of Bengal, and considered himself lucky to escape with the loss of his topgallant masts.

Lashed on top of his main hatch, he had a large kennel containing a pack of foxhounds for the Calcutta Jackal Club. When the cyclone began, the hounds were let out of the kennel, to give them a chance to save themselves; and shortly afterwards the kennel was washed clean over the lee rail without touching it. The hounds had meanwhile disappeared and everyone thought that they must have gone overboard; but when the weather cleared they all came out, safe and sound, from under the lower foc’s’le bunks, where they had taken refuge.

This cyclone wrought havoc amongst the Calcutta shipping, and cost the underwriters over £100,000. Thessalus was lucky to get off with a repair bill of £380.

The Thessalus was lucky with live freight. On her seventh voyage she took horses from Melbourne to Calcutta and landed them all alive and in prime condition. Shortly afterwards the Udston arrived with only four horses alive. She had had bad weather in the Bay of Bengal, the horses had broken loose and in their fright kicked each other to death. On this voyage, Thessalus returned to Melbourne with wheat bags, wool packs and camels. The camels also arrived in good condition. At Melbourne she loaded wool for London at a penny per pound.

Her best wool passage was in 1896, when she left Sydney on the 17th October and was only 75 days to the Start, where she signalled on 31st December. She had left Melbourne in company with Cimba and Argonaut. Argonaut made a long passage, but Thessalus and Cimba were twice in company, concerning which Captain Holmes of Cimba wrote:—

This is high praise, for Captain Holmes had a great knowledge of ships, especially in the Australian trade, and he had a very fast ship in Cimba, which on this occasion reported at noon at the Lizard when Thessalus was reporting at Start Point.

After a long and successful career Thessalus was sold to the Swedes in 1905, when she was still classed 100 A1.

Notes on Passages to Australia in 1874.

1874 was Ben Voirlich’s great year. It will be noticed, however, that on her record passage she had Lochs Ness and Maree on her heels the whole way. Both Lochs had just changed their commanders, Captain Meiklejohn going to the Loch Ness and Captain Charles Grey succeeding Captain McCallum in Loch Maree. Loch Ness chased Ben Voirlich very closely all the way to the Australian Coast, her best 24-hour run being 321 miles. But Loch Maree dropped back in the roaring forties through no fault of her own. On 13th and 14th December she experienced a tremendous gale from east working round to S.W. with high confused sea, during which her patent steering gear was completely smashed up; and this prevented her from taking full advantage of the westerlies, as Captain Grey decided it would not be safe to go further than 42° S.

Cutty Sark and Thomas Stephens also had a great race, the famous tea clipper making the best passage of the year to Sydney.

Both ships were off the Lizards on 22nd November, and experienced very baffling winds to the equator, which Cutty Sark crossed in 26° W. and Thomas Stephens in 29° W. a day later. Cutty Sark was 65 days from the Lizards to S.W. Cape, Tasmania, whilst Thomas Stephens was 68 days to the Otway, where she was becalmed for 14 hours.

Thermopylae, with a 64-day passage from the Lizards, her best run being 348 miles, arrived just in time to defend herself, for Captain McPetrie was declaring to all and sundry that Ben Voirlich had broken Thermopylae’s record, by making a better run from port to port.

The “Loch Garry.”

Many experts considered the Loch Garry to be the finest sailing ship in the world at the date of her launch. She certainly was an example of the well-known Glasgow type at its best.

A new feature was adopted in the placing of her masts. Her mainmast was stepped right amidships, with the fore and mizen masts at equal distances from it.

Loch Garry, her sister ship Loch Vennachar, Green’s Carlisle Castle, Nicol’s Romanoff and the American ship Manuel Laguna were rigged in a manner peculiar to themselves. They had short topgallant masts with fidded royal and skysail masts, on which they crossed royals and skysails above double topgallant yards. When in port their upper topsail and upper topgallant yards would be half mast-headed, and with the seven yards on each mast, all squared to perfection, they presented a magnificent appearance. Loch Garry’s first commander was Captain Andrew Black, a very fine seaman indeed. He commanded her from 1875 to 1882. He was succeeded by Captain John Erskine, who was followed by Captain Horne.

With regard to her merits, the veteran Captain Horne, who commanded her for close on 26 years, wrote to me:—

Loch Garry’s best run under Captain Horne was on 26th December, 1892, when running her easting down in 40° S. With a N.W. wind and smooth sea she covered 334 miles. It is very possible that she exceeded this in her early days when she carried a stronger crew. She was also a good light weather ship. In 1900 she went from the South Tropic to the North Tropic in 14 days 2 hours.

The following passages of recent date will show that Captain Horne kept the Loch Garry moving in spite of the lack of a good crew of sailormen:—

The following account of Captain Horne’s care of his boats and system for provisioning them should be a lesson for younger masters. It is taken from the Melbourne Herald:—

The career of Captain Horne, who was the veteran skipper of the Loch Line, is worth recording. He was born in 1834, apprenticed to the sea at 15 years of age, and only retired in 1911, after 62 years at sea and 47 years in command without experiencing shipwreck, fire or collision. The motto of his life, which he always emblazoned on the cabin bulkhead, was:—“Never underrate the strength of the enemy.” Like many another old seaman, he was not pleased with the changes brought about by steam and cut-throat competition.

Just as Captain Horne’s apprenticeship finished the Crimean war broke out, and, volunteering for active service, he was appointed to the three-decker H.M.S. Royal Albert, the largest ship afloat. He was rated as A.B., but soon promoted to be second captain of the maintop. Sir George Tryon was a junior lieutenant on this ship. The Royal Albert was in the engagement against the Kinburn Forts on the north shore of the Black Sea. At the close of the war Captain Horne received the Crimean and Turkish medals and was paid off on the Victory. He then returned to the Merchant Service and served in 1859 as second mate of the tea clipper Falcon under Captain Maxton. Subsequently he was attached to Lord Elgin’s embassy and placed in charge of a lorcha by Lindsay & Co., of Shanghai. As a member of Lord Elgin’s staff, he was present at the taking of the Taku Forts and was on the house-boat which was towed to Tientsin by one of the gunboats; and he remained there until the treaty was signed.

After this he was 13½ years in the employ of John Allan & Sons. In 1877 he joined the Loch Line and took command of the Loch Sloy, leaving her to take charge of the Loch Garry in 1885.

The Loch Garry only had two severe mishaps in her long life. In August, 1880, when running under topgallant sails off the Crozets in a heavy beam sea, the weather forebrace carried away, the fore topmast went above the eyes of the rigging and took main topgallant mast with it—and Loch Garry was a month getting to Melbourne under jury rig. She was rigged in Geelong with Kauri pine topmasts and long topgallant masts, as shewn in the illustration. In August, 1889, she was dismasted in a furious gale to the south’ard of the Cape. To save the ship Captain Horne was obliged to jettison some 100 tons of cargo in the shape of gunpowder, hardware, whisky, bottled beer, paper, etc. The main and mizen masts carried away close to the deck, but Captain Horne succeeded in sailing his vessel 2600 miles to Mauritius, under foresail and fore lower topsail. Here the Loch Garry was delayed some months whilst new spars were sent out from England, and she eventually reached Melbourne on 14th February, 1890, eight months out from Glasgow. After 36 years of good service, she was sold in March, 1911, to the Italians for the scrap iron price of £1800.

“Loch Vennachar.”

One of the finest and fastest of the Lochs, as well as one of the most unfortunate, was the Loch Vennachar, launched from Thomson’s yard in August, 1875.

She was usually one of the first wool clippers to get away from Melbourne, and for many years, sailing in October, she made very regular passages home, her average under Captain Bennett being 86 days for 12 passages.