| Registered tonnage | 1276 | tons. |
| Length | 222.1 | feet. |
| Beam | 38.1 | „ |
| Depth | 21.5 | „ |
She was composite built with teak planking and was specially designed for carrying passengers, having a poop 80 feet long.
A beautifully modelled ship and a splendid sea boat, she was very heavily sparred and crossed a main skysail yard. She was also one of the last ships to hold on to fore topmast stunsails; indeed for years she was the only ship with stunsail booms aloft in the Australian trade.
Regarding her capabilities as a sea boat, in easting weather she would drive along as dry as a bone, making 300 miles a day without wetting her decks. But it was in light winds that she showed up best, her ghosting powers being quite extraordinary. The flap of her sails sent her along 2 or 3 knots, and in light airs she was accustomed to pass other clippers as if they were at anchor.
Commander Harry Shrubsole, R.N.R., in a letter to the Nautical Magazine, gives the following interesting reminiscences of her wonderful speed.
Some items of one of her passages are worth noting. Crossed the equator in 15 days from Plymouth; arrived off Semaphore, Port Adelaide, 61 days from Plymouth. The last two days were employed in beating up the Gulf from the western end of Kangaroo Island, I forget the name of the point we made, so 59 days could easily be counted as the passage.
We sighted the Jennie Harkness, obviously American, at daylight right ahead in the S.E. trades; at noon we were alongside her, and our Foo-Foo band played “Yankee-Doodle” as we passed her. She had Jimmy Greens and water-sails, flying jib topsails and what not aloft, and we slid by her as if she was—well—sailing slowly, as she undoubtedly was, compared to our speed. We passed a large ship running the easting down. She was under upper topgallant sails, whilst we were under upper topsails with weather upper and lower stunsails set. The old ship was never driven; she did not need it, neither would she stand it. But she sailed rings round anything sighted. To sight a ship to windward and ahead, on a wind, was to ensure the tautening of the weather braces, an order to sail a bit finer and to see her passing ahead and to windward of that ship by the early afternoon. We did this with a four-master, the Amazon, and I bear a scar on my eyebrow to-day in memory of that ship—merely a small argument about her name. In the case of the Jennie Harkness, I was the “leadin’ ’and” of the Foo-Foo band and can picture the incident now in all its features.
Captain H. R. Angel, who had previously commanded the Glen Osmond and Collingrove, was the chief owner of the Torrens, and had a great say in her design; and after overlooking her building he took her from the stocks and commanded her for 15 voyages. Under him she was a wonderfully lucky ship and a great deal of the credit for her success undoubtedly belonged to Captain Angel.
Her biggest run in the 24 hours was 336 miles; and her fastest speed through the water by the log was 14 knots. Her average for 15 outward passages under Captain Angel was 74 days from Plymouth to the Semaphore, Port Adelaide. Captain Angel always brought her into the St. Vincent’s Gulf via the Backstairs Passage, east of Kangaroo Island, instead of through Investigators’ Straits. On the homeward passage he always took the Cape route, for the benefit of his passengers, calling in at Capetown, St. Helena and Ascension.