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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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