The “Loch Torridon.”

When the competition of steam began to cut badly into the Colonial trade, all the Loch three-masters except the Loch Vennachar and Loch Garry, the two finest ships in the fleet, had their yards removed from the mizen mast and were converted into barques, yet they still continued to make fine passages.

Until the eighties 1500 tons was considered a good size for a sailing ship, but the time arrived when it became necessary to have ships which possessed both large carrying capacity and speed, and every designer strove to produce a successful compromise between the two. It was soon found that full-rigged ships of 2000 tons and over were not economical ships to work, and thus it was that the four-mast barque came into being. At first many owners went in for four-mast ships, but it was soon proved that besides being more economical the four-mast barque was just as speedy.

Following the trend of the times Messrs. Aitken & Lilburn commissioned Barclay, Curle & Co. in 1881 to build them two four-mast barques of 2000 tons burden. These were the sister ships Loch Moidart and Loch Torridon; Loch Moidart was launched in September and Loch Torridon in November.

The Loch Moidart was only afloat nine years and was a general trader. On the 26th January, 1890, at 4 in the morning, when bound to Hamburg with nitrate from Pisagua, her look-out suddenly reported a bright light on the port bow. Five minutes later she struck on a sand bank, close to the village of Callantsoog in Northern Holland. A violent gale from the westward was blowing at the time, and only two men, one of whom was the cook, succeeded in gaining the shore alive.

Her sister ship, Loch Torridon, was one of the best known four-mast barques in the British Mercantile Marine, and one of the fastest.

“Loch Torridon is perhaps one of the most graceful and elegant models ever launched from the Glasgow yards,” wrote Sir G. M. White, the Naval Architect to the Admiralty, in 1892.

In 1904 John Arthur Barry, the Australian writer, wrote of her:—“She is exceptionally lofty as to her masts, exceptionally square as to her yards. She carries nothing above a royal, but her royal yards are as long as the topgallant yards of most vessels. Her lower yards are enormous. The vessel is uncommonly well-manned with 20 hands in the foc’s’le, with the usual complement of petty officers, together with three mates and four apprentices aft. Looking forward from the break of the poop, one is struck by the immense amount of clear room on her decks, giving a visitor a sense of spaciousness and freedom in marked contrast to the often lumbered up decks of the average sailer.”

SPAR PLAN OF LOCH TORRIDON.
Bowsprit		25 feet.
Jibboom (outside bowsprit)		31 feet.
Bowsprit and jibboom (over all)		56 feet.
Spars	Foremast feet	Mainmast feet	Mizen mast feet
Mast—deck to truck	148	152	152
Lower mast	68	71	71
Doubling	18	18	18
Topmast	57	57	57
Doubling	7	7½	7½
Topgallant mast	27	30	28
Royal mast	21½	22½	22
Lower yard	88	88	88
Lower topsail yard	78	78	78
Upper topsail yard	74	74	74
Topgallant yard	56	56	56
Royal yard	42½	42½	42½
Spars of jiggermast		Length in feet
Mast—deck to truck		128
Lower mast		70
Doubling		12
Topmast		71
Spanker gaff		38
Spanker boom		46
Jaws of gaff to head of topsail		72

Her royals were 18 feet deep, measured at the bunt; and the depth of her courses was 38 feet measured at the bunt. She also had a spencer gaff on her mizen, measuring 24½ feet. Thus it will be seen that, though she did not carry stunsails, she had plenty of canvas.

Loch Torridon had a poop 36 feet long, a half-deck for apprentices 16 feet long, a midship house 25 feet long, and her topgallant foc’s’le measured 49 feet in length.

SAIL PLAN OF “LOCH MOIDART” AND “LOCH TORRIDON.”

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Captain Pattman, who commanded her for over 26 years, gave the following testimony to her qualities, when interviewed by the Shipping Gazette:—“Being perfectly sparred, the ship is easy to steer, and even in the worst weather the smallest boy on board can keep her on her course.”

Anyone who has felt how hard-mouthed the average four-mast barque can be will appreciate this quality and envy the lucky quartermasters of such a ship. On Loch Torridon there was certainly no excuse for bad steering, and the most strictly adhered to rule on board was that any man or boy found more than half a point off his course was at once sent away from the wheel in disgrace. There were two other factors in Loch Torridon’s success, which she owed to her enterprising commander. Captain Pattman believed in British crews, and took the trouble to train his apprentices.

Regarding the first, he once remarked:—“Give me a Britisher everytime, drunken and bad as he is. The best crew I ever had during the past 15 years I shipped in London last summer (1907). They were all Britishers. The view I hold on this question is that the British sailing ship sailor cannot be equalled, let alone beaten. But the difficulty I have experienced is in regard to steamship A.B.’s. I shipped one of these fellows some time ago, and it turned out that he knew nothing of sailing ship ways. He could not steer, and he knew a good deal less than one of our second voyage apprentices. As compared with such a man, I say, ‘Give me a foreigner who has been at sea on sailing ships for two or three years and who knows the way things are done on a sailing ship.’ I find, however, that the foreigner who has been a few years in British ships becomes more insolent, more disobedient and more difficult to manage than the British sail-trained seaman.”

With regard to the training of apprentices, many a good officer owes his present position to the late Captain Pattman. The Loch Torridon apprentices went to the wheel on their first voyage. At first they took the lee wheel, but as soon as they showed their ability they were allowed to stand their regular trick. In other matters Captain Pattman was a strong advocate of the system carried out on board the German training ships, notably the North German Lloyd.

Captain Pattman took command of Loch Torridon on her second voyage. Her maiden voyage was a very tragic one. She went out to Hobson’s Bay from Glasgow under Captain Pinder, arriving on 27th April, 1882, 105 days out. This gave no indication of her sailing capabilities, so she was not taken up to load wool but was sent across to Calcutta to load jute. She left Calcutta on 22nd August. On 9th October, when off the Cape, she ran into a heavy gale from W.N.W. Captain Pinder hove her to on the starboard tack under close-reefed main topsail. After a bit Captain Pinder wore her round on to the port tack, but with the squalls increasing she lay down to it, dipping her starboard rail. Thereupon Captain Pinder decided to wear her back on to the starboard tack. The mate besought him not to do this without setting the foresail, but unfortunately, having been lucky once, the captain insisted, with the result that when she got off before the wind she had not enough way on her and a tremendous sea came roaring over the stern and carried overboard the master, second mate, man at the wheel, sailmaker and a boy, all being drowned. The mate also was swept away but was saved by a hitch of the main brace getting round his leg. On the following day the weather moderated, and the mate brought the ship home to Plymouth, from whence she was towed up to London.

CAPTAIN PATTMAN’S EARLY CAREER.
Date	Ship served in	Rig	Tons	Capacity	Remarks
1864	Woodland Lass	Schooner	120	Boy	Southwold to Shields and back.
„	Hearts of Oak	Billy boy	105	Boy	Southwold to Hartlepool.
„	Advice	Barque	397	Apprentice	Hartlepool to Cronstad—Cronstad to London.
1866	Hearts of Oak	Billy boy	105	Boy	Southwold to Sunderland.
„	Hubertus	Brig	190	O.S.	Seaham to Boulogne, London, Hamburg, Dieppe and London.
1867	Kingdom of Italy	Barque	427	O.S.	Sunderland to Aden, Tuticorin, and back to London.
1868	Callisto	Barque	598	O.S.	London to Adelaide, Newcastle, N.S.W. and Shanghai.
„	Maggie	Brigantine	230	A.B.	Shanghai, Yokohama, Hongkong, put back to Yokohama disabled.
1869	Lauderdale	Ship	1174	A.B.	Shanghai to Foochow and back with Chinese passengers. Shanghai to London, 153 days, put into St. Helena short of provisions, put into Spithead, Captain ill and no food.
1870	Christiana Thompson	Ship	1066	A.B.	London to Sydney and back.
„	Kingdom of Belgium	Barque	672	2nd Mate	London to Madras, wrecked in cyclone 1st May in Madras Roads.
„	Kingdom of Fife	Barque	497	2nd Mate	Madras to London.
1871	Ocean Beauty	Barque	597	2nd Mate	London to Adelaide, Newcastle, N.S.W., Hongkong, Saigon and Sourabaya.
1872	County of Forfar	Ship	999	1st Mate	Sourabaya, Rotterdam and Glasgow.
„	„	„	„	„	Glasgow to Batavia, Sourabaya and Rotterdam.
1873-4	„	„	„	„	Glasgow to Samarang, Sourabaya and Niewe Dieppe.
1874-5	„	„	„	„	Glasgow to Samarang, Sourabaya, Bombay, Akyab and Antwerp.
1875-6	„	„	„	„	Glasgow to Sourabaya, Bombay and London.
1878	Countyof Cromarty	4-mast ship	1673	„	Glasgow to Rio Janeiro, wrecked in ballast S. Rio Grande del Sul. Captain and second mate died of smallpox.
1879	Countyof Selkirk	4-mast ship	1865	„	Glasgow to Calcutta and London.
„	County of Bute	Ship	789	Master	Cardiff to Batavia, 80 days Akyab to Antwerp.
1880	County of Selkirk	4-mast ship	1865	„	Cardiff, Bombay, Rangoon and Liverpool.
1881	„	„	„	„	Liverpool to Colombo, Bombay to London.

Captain Pattman took charge of Loch Torridon in December, 1882, giving up the command of the four-mast ship County of Selkirk in order to take the Loch liner. As a sailing ship commander of the first rank, it may perhaps be of interest to give a short outline of Captain Pattman’s previous career.

From this record it will be seen that Captain Pattman had won his way to command by the time-honoured means of the hawse-hole.

In the barque Advice he had an experience which would have sickened most boys of the sea, and he bore the scars to his dying day. The officers of the ship were actually prosecuted by his father for their brutality, the result being that Pattman’s indentures were cancelled, the captain had his certificate cancelled and was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour, whilst the mate was given three years’ hard labour. Both were hard drinkers and uneducated men.

The brig Hubertus, which Pattman joined as an ordinary seaman, was a real old-fashioned Geordie collier brig. Her skipper could neither read nor write, and Pattman acted as his clerk and did all his correspondence. But the old man knew his way about the North Sea by smell: he only had to sniff the arming of the lead and was never wrong in naming the ship’s position. These old collier skippers always wore sleeved vests and stove-pipe hats at sea, and in the summer the Thames was often a wonderful sight when these colliers sailed up to London before a fair wind. There were often a hundred and more, brigs, schooners, and barques, all crowding up the river so closely, that these old Geordie skippers, all smoking long church-wardens, would be leaning over their respective taffrails exchanging greetings and gossip. Truly 60 years have changed the London River. Yet many a man living to-day can remember the year 1866, when Pattman sailed up to London in his Geordie brig. It was the year in which the three famous tea clippers Ariel, Taeping, and Serica arrived in the river on the same tide. Seafaring then was far more like that of the days of Drake and the Elizabethans than it is like the seafaring of the present day.

CAPTAIN PATTMAN.

“LOCH TORRIDON.”
With Perforated Sails.

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Lauderdale was a well-known ship in the China trade, and the Christiana Thompson was, of course, the Aberdeen White Star liner.

On her first three voyages under Captain Pattman, Loch Torridon took first, second, and third class passengers out to Melbourne from Glasgow.

She left Glasgow on 2nd March, 1883, with 7 saloon, 33 steerage passengers and 12 prize stallions for Port Phillip. Passed Rothesay Bay on the 5th and the Tuskar on the 8th. Running down the easting she made 1911 miles in one week, and was only 22 days between the Cape meridian and Hobson’s Bay, passing through the Heads 74 days out from the Tuskar.

At Melbourne she took on board 320 horses, 2 cows, 3 dogs, 12 sheep and 27 Chinese grooms for Calcutta. The trade in walers between Australia and Calcutta was a very lucrative one in those days. On the Loch Torridon a new system was adopted for taking the horses on board. They were walked from the railway trucks up gangways on to the main deck, then down other specially laid gangways through the hatchways and so into their stalls. This method proved an unqualified success and saved four days’ time on the old method of slinging them aboard. The hatch gangways were left in position, and while at sea the horses were exercised on deck in batches, every horse getting 24 hours a week on deck. This would have been impossible on a ship with an incumbered deck, but here the fine clean sweep of Loch Torridon’s main deck came in useful as a sort of training ground.

Sailing from Melbourne on 20th June, 1883, the Loch Torridon was unfortunate in encountering very bad weather between Cape Otway and the Leeuwin, in which she lost 27 horses and 2 Chinese grooms. She arrived in Calcutta on 1st August, 42 days out, and cleared £1250 on the trip after paying all expenses such as fittings, grooms and horse food. From Calcutta she took 103 days to London.

On the 26th May, 1884, Loch Torridon again left Glasgow for Melbourne with 8 saloon, 8 second class and 34 steerage passengers, and the usual Clyde cargo of pig iron, pipes, bar iron, heavy hardware, bricks, boards, ale and whisky. She put into Rothesay Bay for shelter from the weather on 30th May, and passed the Tuskar on 2nd June. Crossed the line on 1st July in 27° W. The S.E. trades were southerly and she had to beat along the Brazilian coast to 17° S. Passed the Cape meridian on 30th July in 44° S. On 10th and 11th August she logged 642 miles, was 23 days from the Cape meridian to Port Phillip, and arrived in Melbourne 23rd August, 82 days from the Tuskar. She then took coal from Newcastle, N.S.W., to Frisco, making the run across the Pacific in 58 days: and loaded a grain cargo home.

In 1885 she ran out to Melbourne from Glasgow with 58 passengers in 89 days, crossed to Frisco with Newcastle coal in 58 days, and took 49,317 bags of wheat from Frisco to Hull.

In 1886 she went out to Bombay from Cardiff with 2928 tons of coal, arriving Bombay on 14th January, 1887, 97 days out, having raced and beaten the County of Edinburgh.

After lying three months in Bombay, she got a freight home to Dunkirk.

In 1887 Loch Torridon went to Calcutta from Liverpool and then took a Calcutta cargo to New York, arriving there on 10th June, 1888, 102 days out. From New York she took case oil back to Calcutta, but at 8.15 a.m. on 1st November she stranded on Bangaduni Sand and Captain Pattman had to jettison cargo to get her off. It was proved at the inquiry that an abnormal nor’westerly current caused by cyclonic disturbances at the south end of the Bay of Bengal had set the Loch Torridon in on the land. The weather had been thick for some days and Captain Pattman had no blame attached to him. Temporary repairs were made in Calcutta, and on her arrival home permanent repairs were made at Jarrow-on-Tyne.

In 1889 Loch Torridon again went to Calcutta, taking a brutal cargo of railway iron from Middlesboro, and came home to London.

In 1890 she went out to Calcutta from Liverpool in 87 days port to port, and took jute back to Dundee.

In 1891 Loch Torridon at last returned to the Australian trade, arriving in Sydney from Glasgow 94 days out. Then after lying in Sydney for five months, she loaded her first wool cargo. Amongst the magnificent fleet of 77 sailing ships, which were screwing wool into their holds for the London market, Loch Torridon was considered an outsider, a dark horse with her name all to make; and she thus had to wait for the last sales, and did not get away until the 27th March, 1892. Nevertheless the Loch Torridon made the best passage of the season and had the honour of beating all the cracks. The following is Captain Pattman’s account of his passage:—

My passage home was the smartest of the wool season, 1891-2, either from Melbourne or Sydney, being 81 days to the Lizard and 83 to dock. After I left Sydney, I got down as far as Jervis Bay and there met an S.S.E. gale, which was in force for 36 hours. I went away for the north of New Zealand, which I passed on the 14th day out. I fell in with the Liverpool there. I was in 150° W. on 29th April, before I got a wind without any easting in it. Nothing but N.E.E. and S.E. winds prevailed up to that time. On 14th May I rounded the Horn, 40 days out, I was nearly grey-headed at that time. On 21st May I fell in with the Strathdon. We were both dodging icebergs, the Strathdon had been in amongst them since 18th May, but I only had 12 hours of it, which was quite enough. I left her astern in a short time. On 3rd June I was in 0° 27′ S. lat., 60 days from Sydney, 20 from the Horn. On 24th June I signalled at the Lizards, 21 days from the equator. I think it is a record passage from the Horn. I can hardly believe my good fortune, for I threw up the sponge when I got to the Horn, 40 days out, and made sure that the passage would run into three figures. Loch Torridon passed everything we saw, in fact she never sailed better with me.

I saw in the evening papers that the Hesperus was reported in 14° N. on 1st June. I was in 0° 27′ S. on 3rd June. The Hesperus docked yesterday. She was the only one I thought had a chance with me, and I am of opinion that if I had gone south of New Zealand I should have done much better. It would have been hard lines if I could not have rounded the Snares in 14 days and been in a better position for winds as well, but I am content. I have shown that an outsider, as they looked upon the Loch Torridon, can show the road to their regular traders.

Ice to the South’ard.

It will be noticed from Captain Pattman’s letter on his run home in 1892 that Strathdon and Loch Torridon encountered ice to the south’ard. And they were not the only ships to do so.

In the years 1892 and 1893 a tremendous drift of field ice and huge bergs, many of them over 1000 feet in height, blocked the way of ships in the Southern Ocean, as the following reports will show:—

1892.
April	Cromdale encountered ice	1000	feet high in	46° S. 36° W.
May	Strathdon encountered ice	1000	feet high in	45 S. 25 W.
June	County of Edinbro encountered ice	900	feet high in	45 S. 37 W.
Sept.	Loch Eck encountered ice	1000	feet high in	44 S. 2 W.
Oct.	Curzon encountered ice	1000	feet high in	44 S. 31 W.
Oct.	Liverpool encountered ice	800	feet high in	55 S. 94 W.

1893.
Jan.	Loch Torridon encountered ice	1500	feet high in	51° S. 46° W.
Feb.	Cutty Sark encountered ice	1000	feet high in	50 S. 43 W.
Mar.	Turakina encountered ice	1200	feet high in	51 S. 47 W.
April	Brier Holme encountered ice	1000	feet high in	49 S. 51 W.
May	Charles Racine encountered ice	1000	feet high in	50 S. 52 W.

The Cromdale had a very exciting experience, and Captain E. H. Andrew wrote the following account to the secretary of the London Shipmasters’ Society:—

We left Sydney on 1st March, and having run our easting down on the parallel of 49° to 50° S., rounded the Horn on 30th March without having seen ice, the average temperature of the water being 43° during the whole run across.

At midnight on 1st April in 56° S., 58° 32′ W., the temperature fell to 37½°, this being the lowest for the voyage, but no ice was seen though there was a suspicious glare to the southward.

At 4 a.m. on 6th April in 46° S., 36° W., a large berg was reported right ahead, just giving us time to clear it. At 4.30 with the first signs of daybreak, several could be distinctly seen to windward, the wind being N.W. and the ship steering N.E. about 9 knots. At daylight, 5.20 a.m., the whole horizon to windward was a complete mass of bergs of enormous size, with an unbroken wall at the back; there were also many to leeward.

I now called all hands, and after reducing speed to 7 knots sent the hands to their stations and stood on. At 7 a.m. there was a wall extending from a point on the lee bow to about 4 points on the lee quarter, and at 7.30 both walls joined ahead. I sent the chief mate aloft with a pair of glasses to find a passage out, but he reported from the topgallant yard that the ice was unbroken ahead. Finding myself embayed and closely beset with innumerable bergs of all shapes, I decided to tack and try and get out the way I had come into the bay.

The cliffs were now truly grand, rising up 300 feet on either side of us, and as square and true at the edge as if just out of a joiner’s shop, with the sea breaking right over the southern cliff and whirling away in a cloud of spray.

Tacked ship at 7.30 finding the utmost difficulty in keeping clear of the huge pieces strewn so thickly in the water and having on several occasions to scrape her along one to keep clear of the next.

We stood on in this way until 11 a.m., when, to my horror, the wind started to veer with every squall till I drew quite close to the southern barrier, having the extreme point a little on my lee bow. I felt sure we must go ashore without a chance of saving ourselves. Just about 11.30 the wind shifted to S.W. with a strong squall, so we squared away to the N.W. and came past the same bergs as we had seen at daybreak, the largest being about 1000 feet high, anvil shaped. At 2 p.m. we got on the N.W. side of the northern arm of the horseshoe shaped mass. It then reached from 4 points on my lee bow to as far as could be seen astern in one unbroken line.

A fact worthy of note was that at least 50 of the bergs in the bay were perfectly black, which was to be accounted for by the temperature of the water, being 51°, which had turned many over. I also think that had there been even the smallest outlet at the eastern side of this mass, the water between the barriers would not have been so thickly strewn with bergs, as the prevailing westerly gales would have driven them through and separated them. I have frequently seen ice down south, but never anything like even the smaller bergs in this group.

I also had precisely the same experience with regard to the temperature of water on our homeward passage in the Derwent three years ago, as we dipped up a bucket of water within half a mile of a huge berg and found no change in the temperature.

Cromdale, Strathdon, County of Edinburgh and Curzon, all sighted this stupendous ice barrier, and Loch Torridon when she spoke the Strathdon was on the extreme eastern end in about 25° W., whilst the Cromdale cleared it at the extreme western end, giving the length of the barrier from east to west about 12 degrees of longitude.

In the following year Loch Torridon, Cutty Sark, Turakina, Brier Holme and Charles Racine fell in with an equally huge field of ice, about 6 degrees of latitude further south and stretching from 52° W. to 43° W. That the two fields were the same lot of ice it is very difficult to say for certain, but it is more likely that they were quite separate from each other.

Here is Loch Torridon’s account of the 1893 ice as given to the Shipping Gazette:—

Loch Torridon reports that on 17th January, 1893, in lat. 52° 50′ S., long. 46° W., she sighted two large icebergs to the eastward. On the 19th in 50° 50′ S., 46° W., she passed between numerous immense bergs, ranging in size from ¼ to 3 miles in length, and from 500 to 1000 feet high. At 3.30 p.m. on same date she saw an immense continent of ice ahead with apparently no open water. Passing to the eastward she had the south end abeam at 4 p.m. and the north end at 9.30 a.m. As the ship had been sailing 9 knots an hour during this time, steering a N. 11° E. course, this would give the length, north and south, of this mass to be about 50 miles.

How far it extended to the westward was not known, but from aloft, as as far as the eye could see, nothing but ice was visible. Numerous large bergs were to the eastward of the barrier, through which Loch Torridon threaded her way, besides vast quantities of detached pieces of ice and small bergs.

Numerous bays and indentations were noticed in the continent of ice, with bergs and detached ice in the bays cracking against each other and turning over. Loch Torridon had sleet and fine snow all night and intense cold. Numberless bergs were passed until 8 a.m. on the 20th, when an iceberg was abeam to the eastward at least 3 miles long and 1500 feet high.

The following was the famous Cutty Sark’s experience. I have taken it from Captain Woodget’s private journal:—

Wednesday, 8th February.—Lat. 50° 08′ S., long. 46° 41′ W., course N. 50° E., distance 150 miles. Gentle S.W. breeze and fine. 6.00 a.m., foggy; 6.30, fog lifted and we found ourselves surrounded by icebergs; 8 a.m., foggy again; ice ahead, in fact there was ice all round. As soon as we cleared one berg another would be reported. You could hear the sea roaring on them and through them, the ice cracking sometimes like thunder, at other times like cannon, and often like a sharp rifle report, and yet could not see them.

At 1 p.m. the top of an iceberg was seen which one could hardly believe was ice, it looked like a streak of dark cloud. Then we could see the ice a few feet down, but we could not see the bottom. It was up at an angle of 45 degrees, we were only about 1000 feet off, so it would be 1000 feet high, it had a circular top but we could not see the ends.

A few minutes later another was under the bows, we only cleared it by a few feet. It was about 100 feet high and flat-topped. Just as we were passing the corner there was a sharp report that made you jump, as if it was breaking in two.

Found another on the other side quite close, and a few minutes later saw the long ridge of ice almost ahead. Kept off, and then another came in sight on the other bow. We were too near it to keep away, but I felt sure that it was no part of the big one—as we were passing this the point of the big one came in sight, the fog cleared and we passed in between them, there being not more than 400 feet between them. When we had cleared the big one, I saw its north end and took bearings. After sailing 8 miles I took other bearings and found that the east side was 19 miles long; and we could not see the end of the side we sailed along. We sailed about 6 miles alongside of it, water now quite smooth. Before noon the water was quite lumpy from all ways. After we had cleared the passage by about 3 or 4 miles, it cleared up astern and what a sight it was! Nothing but icebergs through the passage and on the south side of the passage (for the south berg was only about ½ mile long north and south, same height as the big berg. I expect it had not long broken off.) There was nothing but a sea of ice astern, and another large flat-topped iceberg, which as far as you could see extended like land, it must have been 20 miles long or more.

After we were through, there was nothing but small ice from small pieces to bergs 100 feet long. Also there was one about a mile long covered with what looked like pumice stone or lumps of tallow.