The Tragedy of the “Loch Ard.”
The ill-fated Loch Ard was the largest vessel owned by Aitken & Lilburn until Barclay, Curle built those two splendid four-posters, the Lochs Moidart and Torridon.
Her maiden passage was one of the unluckiest on record. She lost her masts almost before she had cleared the land and put back to the Clyde to refit. She made a second start on 26th January, 1874, and again, whilst running her easting down, was badly dismasted, only the mizen lower mast and 15 feet of the mainmast being left standing. After rolling in the trough of the sea for four days of the greatest peril her crew managed to get her under a jury rig, and she took 49 days to cover the 4500 miles to Hobson’s Bay, where she arrived on 24th May, 118 days from the date of her second start.
As I have already related, the year 1874 was a disastrous one for dismastings; and when the Loch Ard struggled into Melbourne, she found the John Kerr and Cambridgeshire, both on their maiden voyages, lying there in a similar plight to her own. Besides these ships and the Loch Maree, the following were also dismasted this year on their maiden passages:—Rydal Hall, Norval, Chrysomene and British Admiral. The latter was refitted in England, only to be wrecked on her second attempt, on King’s Island, on 23rd May, 1874, with great loss of life.
The Loch Ard on her unfortunate maiden passage had been commanded by Captain Robertson, who, also, was skipper of the Loch Earn when she collided with the Ville du Havre. On her third voyage the Loch Ard was taken by Captain Gibb, who was a stranger to Australian waters. He married just before sailing. The Loch Ard left Gravesend on 2nd March, 1878. She was spoken by the John Kerr, Captain W. Scobie, on 9th April. But between 5 and 6 on the morning of 1st June, the day after the John Kerr had arrived in Hobson’s Bay, the Loch Ard went ashore 27 miles from the Otway, at Curdies’ Inlet, between Port Campbell and Moonlight Head.
Out of 52 souls on board, only two were saved, an apprentice and a passenger. About these two a romance has been woven, which would have done for Clark Russell. Tom Pearce, the apprentice, displayed such gallantry and pluck in saving the passenger, Miss Carmichael, that he became the hero of the hour in Australia. He was one of those people, however, who have the name “Jonah” attached to them by sailors, for a year later he suffered shipwreck again, in the Loch Sunart, which was piled up on the Skulmartin Rock, 11th January, 1879. The story goes that Tom Pearce was washed ashore and carried up in a senseless condition to the nearest house. This happened to be the home of Miss Carmichael, who fittingly nursed him back to health, with the proper story book finish that he married her. Whether this is true or not, Pearce lived to be a Royal Mail S.P. captain. He finally retired from the sea in 1908 and died on 15th December of that year.
I now commence a series of tables of outward passages to Australia. These have been compiled with as much care as possible, but slips will creep into lists of this kind, and I should be very grateful if any reader who is able to correct a date from an original abstract or private journal would write to me, so that the mistake may be set right in future editions. I have not always filled in a date, as where there was any want of proof I have preferred to leave it blank.
Besides the regular traders, I have tried to include every ship making the outward passage under 80 days, thus we find some of Smith’s celebrated “Cities” and a number of the frigate-built Blackwallers figuring in the lists. As regards outsiders, I have had to omit several ships for want of sufficient data, but I think my lists are complete as far as the regular traders are concerned.
| PASSAGES UNDER 80 DAYS TO SYDNEY IN 1873. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Departure | Crossed Equator | Crossed Cape Meridian | Passed S.W. Cape Tasmania | Arrived | Days Out | |
| Samuel Plimsoll | Plymouth | Nov. 19 | Dec. 11 | Jan. 7 ’74 | Jan. 28 ’74 | Feb. 1 ’74 | 74 |
| Cutty Sark | Channel | Dec. 16 | Jan. 4 ’74 | Jan. 30 ’74 | Feb. 25 ’74 | Mar. 4 ’74 | 78 |
| Patriarch | Channel | Apl. 12 | May 9 | June 8 | June 24 | June 30 | 79 |
| (passed Ot.) | |||||||
| PASSAGES UNDER 80 DAYS TO MELBOURNE IN 1873. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship | Departure | Crossed Equator | Crossed Cape Meridian | Passed Cape Otway | Arrived | Days Out | |
| Miltiades | Start | May 12 | June 6 | June 24 | July 15 | 64 | |
| Thomas Stephens | Ushant | Sept. 3 | Sept. 14 | Oct. 16 | Nov. 7 | Nov. 8 | 66 |
| Ben Cruachan | Tuskar | Oct. 7 | Nov. 2 | Nov. 21 | Dec. 13 | 67 | |
| Loch Tay | Tuskar | Sept. 6 | Sept. 28 | Oct. 22 | Nov. 13 | Nov. 14 | 69 |
| Thermopylae | Start | Dec. 6 | Dec. 30 | Jan. 20 ’74 | Feb. 15 ’74 | Feb. 16 ’74 | 72 |
| Mermerus | Lizard | July 6 | July 30 | Aug. 19 | Sept. 16 | 72 | |
| Sam Mendel | Tuskar | July 25 | July 26 | Oct. 6 | 72 | ||
| The Tweed | Lizard | Sept. 6 | Sept. 30 | Oct. 25 | Nov. 18 | 73 | |
| Marpesia | St. Albans | Oct. 17 | Oct. 17 | Dec. 29 | 73 | ||
| Theophane | Tuskar | Aug. 30 | Sept. 25 | Oct. 17 | Nov. 9 | Nov. 12 | 74 |
| Jerusalem | Lizard | June 29 | July 24 | Aug. 22 | Sept. 14 | Sept. 14 | 77 |
| Strathdon | Start | Aug. 23 | Sept. 21 | Nov. 7 | Nov. 9 | 78 | |
| City of Hankow | Portland | Dec. 3 | Jan. 1 ’74 | Jan. 21 ’74 | Feb. 19 ’74 | 78 | |
| Loch Lomond | Tuskar | June 25 | July 23 | Aug. 18 | Sept. 12 | Sept. 13 | 79 |