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SAIL VOLUME II
I. WOOL CLIPPERS
COLLINGWOOD
(1872 -1917), tonnage 1064 gross and 1011 net, length 221ft 1in, beam
34ft 8in,
depth 21ft.
Constructed of
iron, built by Hood,
Aberdeen, for Devitt & Moore. She was not designed to carry
passengers.
The intention
was to put her in general trade out to Melbourne
and to carry wool home, and with a few exceptions
almost her
entire
life with Devitt & Moore was spent on th Melbourne run..
Her passages were regular - rarely much
over 80
days to Melbourne and
seldom over 100 days returning. In 1893, she was sold to
Norwegian
owners.
At first she
was put in the wool trade from Sydney. In 1897 she
was transferred to the Rangoon trade. Before
World War I,
she was
in the timber trade between Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom. She
was sunk by a
submarine in
1917.
SALAMIS
(1875 - 1905), tonnage 1,130 gross and 1,021 net, length 212ft 6in,
beam 36ft, depth 21ft 7in. Of iron
construction, built by Hood ,
Aberdeen, for george Thompson's Aberdeen White Star Line. An extended
copy of
THERMOPYLAE and a racer. She had no accommodation for passengers
and was intended to
follow in the foot
steps of
THERMOPYLAE - outwards to Melbourne with
general cargo, to
China with coal and to return home with
a cargo
of the first tea of the
new season. Her maiden voyage in 1875 was to Melbourne (68
days
from Start Pont)
and
returned with a cargo of wool. In 1876, when
she arrived in China on her second voyage all the first teas were
taken by
steamers and she returned with a cargo of sugar.. In her third
voyage she twice crossed to China from
Melbourne
but the freight
for tea was low and she returned with wool from Melbourne. After
this she settled in the
wool
trade where she was fast and successful. She made
thirteen outward passages to Melbourne averaging 75 days,
In
1899,
she was sold to Norwegian owners who put her in the guano trade and
was
in this trade when she was
wrecked
in 1905 on Malden Island in the
Line Islands, Central South Pacific..
LOCH VENNACHAR
(1875 - 1905), tonnage 1,552 gross and 1,485 net, length 250ft 1in,
beam 38ft 3in,
depth 22ft 4in.
Constructed of iron,
built by Thomson, Glasgow, for Aitken & Lilburn's Glasgow
Shipping Co.
(later the
General Shipping Co.). Basil Lubbock
describes her as "an out and
out" wool clipper which
throughout
her career was was kept in the
Melbourne wool trade. He adds that she was "generally the first wool
ship
to leave Port Phillip with the new clip." In the eighties and early
nineties, she had an average of 86 days for
twelve
homeward passages. She was beaten on the homeward run by the
likes of CUTTY SARK,
THERMOPYLAE and
SALAMIS but not by many
others. In 1901, while
at anchor in the Thames a steamer
collided with
he and sank her
in 40 feet of water. There were no casualties and she was
soon
salvaged and
repaired.
In 1892, she was dismasted and nearly
overwhelmed in an Indian Ocean cyclone and it was nine days
before she
could put
up a jury rig and when she reached Mauritius she lay five months before
she received new
sails and
spars . In 1905, she was lost with all
hands at West Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
SOPHOCLES
(1879 - 1925), 1,136 tons, length 233ft 4in, beam 34ft 7in, depth21ft
7in. Constructed of iron, built
by Hood,
Aberdeen for George
Thompson's Aberdeen White Star Line. She was the smallest iron
ship ever built for
the Line. Like
SALAMIS she was without passenger or emigrant accommodation. She
sailed regularly
to Sydney and
carried wool on
her return journeys but her passage times
were not up to the
standards of the wool fleet. When the
sailing
ships of the
Aberdeen White Star Line were sold in the mid eighteen-nineties she was
acquired by
Italian owners
and sailed
as a general trader for thirty years.
She was broken up in 1925 .
DERWENT
(1884 - 1925), tonnage 1,970 gross and 1,890 net, length 275ft, beam
40ft 2in, depth23ft 7in. Of iron
construction,
built by McMillan, Dumbarton, for Devitt & Moore. For twenty years
she was on the Sydney run
carrying
general cargo and a few
passengers out and returning
with a cargo of wool. She was one of the slowest
of the first
class
ships in the wool trade but gained a reputation for the way she
was run and
the good condition of her
cargo when
delivered. She was sold to
Norwegian owners in 1904. She survived World war I and her last
voyage in
1925 was
carrying guano from Callao, Peru, to Charleston,
South Carolina. She was sold there and converted into
a coastal
barge.
TORRIDON
(1885 - 1916), 1,564 registered tons, length 246ft, beam 38ft 1in,
depth 22ft. Constructed of iron,
built by Hall,
Aberdeen, for
Alexander Nichol & Co. Intended for the wool trade, she was not a
record breaker but
gave a steady
reliable performance. Her maiden
voyage from Deal to Sydney was in 90 days. She held
on to the
Sydney trade
until she was sold to Italian owners in
1905. She was sunk by a
submarine in 1916.
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CROMDALE
(1891 - 1913), 1,903 tons, length 271ft 6in, beam 40ft 1in, depth 23ft
4in. Consructed of iron, built
by Barclay,
Curle & Co., Clyde, for
Donaldson, Rose & Co. Sister ship of the MOUNT STEWART.
These wer
the last two
ships built specifically for the wool trade.She was put in
the Sydney trade. In 1892, on the return journey
of her maiden
voyage was nearly her last
when she faced being embayed by ice off
Cape Horn. She escaped by
retracing
her course. She met her end in 1913 when she came
ashore
close to the Lizard in thick fog.. The crew
were
rescued.
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