Her best outward passage was made in 1873, being 70 days dock to dock, 63 days pilot to pilot. She left London on 5th May, dropped her pilot off the Start on 12th May. Had very light winds to the equator, crossed the line on 6th June in 27° 30′ W., crossed the meridian of the Cape on 24th June in 44° S. On 24th, 25th and 26th June she ran 305, 310, and 345 miles. Crossed the meridian of Cape Leeuwin on 9th July, and was off the Otway on 14th July, only 20 days from the Cape, finally anchored in Hobson’s Bay on the 15th; just 39 days from the equator. On this passage her decks were lumbered up with sheep pens, and one can well imagine what an unpleasant time those sheep must have had when she was running her easting down.
In 1874 Miltiades was diverted from Melbourne to Wellington. Emigration to New Zealand was booming and many extra ships had to be taken up; for instance the La Hogue took 443 emigrants to Wellington, the fine iron Calcutta clipper Ballochmyle took 484 to Canterbury and the Rooparell 361 to Auckland.
The change was very near being the end of Miltiades, for she missed stays whilst beating up to Wellington and slid on to a reef. Captain Perrett immediately fired his signal guns and sent up a rocket to attract attention. Luckily for him the inter-colonial steamer had just rounded the North Heads bound in and at once went to his assistance, and after one or two failures managed to get the Miltiades off. It was not until many years later that the Miltiades was again seen in Maoriland, but in the early nineties she made the following fine runs home:—
| 1890 | Lyttelton to London, February 8 to April 27 | 78 days |
| 1891 | Wellington to London, January 14 to April 6 | 82 days |
When the Aberdeen White Star sold their ships the Italian owners of the Titania bought the Miltiades. She was finally condemned and broken up in 1905.
Carmichael’s Superb Wool Clipper “Mermerus.”
This beautiful ship was one of the finest and most successful of all the iron wool clippers, and as a specimen of an iron sailing ship she could hardly be beaten, either for looks, speed or sea worthiness. Barclay, Curle never turned out a more graceful and handsome ship as looks; and like all Carmichael’s, she was most beautifully sparred, crossing the main skysail yard, which was so characteristic a feature of their ships. I give her spar plan below.
| SPAR PLAN OF MERMERUS. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spars | Fore | Main | Mizen | |
Masts—deck to truck | 156 feet | 161 feet | 135 feet | |
Lowermast | 64 ft. | 68 ft. | 56 ft. | |
Doubling | 16½ ft. | 16½ ft. | 14 ft. | |
Topmast | 57 ft. | 57 ft. | 48 ft. | |
Doubling | 11 ft. | 11½ ft. | 10 ft. | |
Topgallant mast | 32 ft. | 32 ft. | 26 ft. | |
Royal mast | 17 ft. | 17½ ft. | 15 ft. | |
Skysail mast | 13½ ft. | 13½ ft. | 12½ ft. | |
Lower yard | 87 ft. | 88 ft. | 73½ ft. | |
Lower topsail yard | 74½ ft. | 76 ft. | 62 ft. | |
Upper topsail yard | 73 ft. | 73½ ft. | 60 ft. | |
Lower topgallant yard | 57½ ft. | 60 ft. | 52 ft. | |
Upper topgallant yard | 56 ft. | 56 ft. | 45 ft. | |
Royal yard | 44 ft. | 44 ft. | 32 ft. | |
Skysail yard | 32 ft. | |||
| Jibboom 72 ft. | Spanker boom 55 ft. | Spanker gaff 37 ft. | ||
This is her original spar plan. Barclay, Curle planned her spars for three skysails, but the fore and mizen were not sent aloft. Mermerus had a poop 54 feet long, and a foc’s’lehead 32 feet long. She carried a cargo of 10,000 bales of wool, representing the fleeces of a million sheep and worth £130,000 more or less as wool varied in price.