[Larger image] (244 kB)

Loch Tay, which left Glasgow on 4th September under Captain Scott, also lost a day becalmed off the Otway. She crossed the equator in 29° W. and the meridian of Greenwich on 18th October in 39° S. Running the easting down she averaged 276 miles a day for 19 days, her best day’s work being 336 miles.

Of the others nothing special calls for notice. Thermopylae left Gravesend on 2nd December, and had a light weather passage all the way, though she went as far as 47° S. in search of wind. Cutty Sark also was handicapped by very light winds. She ran her easting down in 40° S. with light winds and calms from the S.E. trades to Port Jackson.

This was the Tweed’s first visit to Melbourne. This magnificent clipper was probably the tallest ship ever seen in Hobson’s Bay. And wherever Captain Stuart took her she compelled admiration both for her majestic appearance and wonderful sailing performances.

Devitt & Moore’s Crack Passenger Ship “Rodney.”

Messrs. Devitt & Moore always considered the Rodney to be the fastest of their iron ships. She was also one of the finest specimens of the passenger sailing ship in its last phase.

The following account from an Australian paper of November, 1874, will give a good idea of the Rodney’s accommodation for passengers. It is also interesting as showing what was considered luxury in the seventies and comparing it with the present day:—

To render voyaging as easy and pleasant as possible has long engaged the attention of shipowners, but it is only of late years that it has become a special study to make the accommodations for oversea passengers not merely comfortable but absolutely luxurious.

The change in this respect since the time when only a certain amount of cabin space was provided is something akin to a transformation. The worry and bother of attending to the fitting up, as well as the extra expenditure of time and money, are now avoided, and with very little need for previous provision or preparation, the intending voyager nowadays can step on board ship and find his cabin carpeted and curtained and fitted up with almost all the accessories and appointments of a bedroom in a hotel.

An inspection of the Rodney will convince the most fastidious that the entire question of passenger comfort has been thought out fully and amply. The Rodney is an iron clipper of beautiful model and is what is termed a 1500-ton ship. She has been constructed specially with a view to the conveyance of passengers, and there are few sailing ships coming to the colony which have such a spacious saloon. It measures 80 feet in length and has berthing accommodation for 60 people. No cost has been spared in the decoration and embellishments, and yet these have not been promoted at the expense of solid and material comfort.