Loch Garry’s best run under Captain Horne was on 26th December, 1892, when running her easting down in 40° S. With a N.W. wind and smooth sea she covered 334 miles. It is very possible that she exceeded this in her early days when she carried a stronger crew. She was also a good light weather ship. In 1900 she went from the South Tropic to the North Tropic in 14 days 2 hours.
The following passages of recent date will show that Captain Horne kept the Loch Garry moving in spite of the lack of a good crew of sailormen:—
| 1892 | Tuskar to Cape Otway | 71 | dy. |
| 1894 | Downs to Melbourne | 77 | „ |
| 1895 | Lizard to Melbourne | 77 | „ |
| 1896 | Melbourne to Prawle Pt. | 80 | „ |
| 1900 | Melbourne to Prawle Pt. | 85 | „ |
| 1901 | Adelaide to C. Otway | 48 | hr. |
| 1903 | Port Philip Heads to Lizard | 74 | dy. |
| 1904 | Melbourne to Dover | 77 | „ |
| 1906 | Tuskar to Cape Borda | 73 | „ |
| 1905 | Equator to Leeuwin | 36 | „ |
| (Average 240 knots) | |||
The following account of Captain Horne’s care of his boats and system for provisioning them should be a lesson for younger masters. It is taken from the Melbourne Herald:—
A feature of Loch Garry’s equipment, in which Captain Home takes a justifiable pride, is the system for provisioning the lifeboats, should it ever be necessary to abandon the vessel. In two minutes the apprentices can place enough provisions in the boats to last all hands 14 days. The lifeboats are on the after skids and the falls are always kept rove. In each boat are two 15-gallon breakers, which are kept full of fresh water, charged about once a month. Then in a strong wooden box, fitted with beckets, is stowed a good supply of biscuits, in protected tins, whilst in another box a number of tins of meat are packed together with the necessary opening knife. A third box contains miscellaneous articles, such as medical comforts, clothing, tobacco, a hatchet, knives and a compass. The three boxes are always kept handy in the lazarette, the provisions they contain being changed each voyage, so that the biscuits and meat are always fresh. One man can easily lift either of the boxes and the equipment is completed by the lifeboats’ sails and all necessary gear being kept in a canvas bag close by. The system is simplicity itself, and Captain Horne says that he would like to see some such plan made compulsory by the B.O.T. in all ships.
The career of Captain Horne, who was the veteran skipper of the Loch Line, is worth recording. He was born in 1834, apprenticed to the sea at 15 years of age, and only retired in 1911, after 62 years at sea and 47 years in command without experiencing shipwreck, fire or collision. The motto of his life, which he always emblazoned on the cabin bulkhead, was:—“Never underrate the strength of the enemy.” Like many another old seaman, he was not pleased with the changes brought about by steam and cut-throat competition.
Just as Captain Horne’s apprenticeship finished the Crimean war broke out, and, volunteering for active service, he was appointed to the three-decker H.M.S. Royal Albert, the largest ship afloat. He was rated as A.B., but soon promoted to be second captain of the maintop. Sir George Tryon was a junior lieutenant on this ship. The Royal Albert was in the engagement against the Kinburn Forts on the north shore of the Black Sea. At the close of the war Captain Horne received the Crimean and Turkish medals and was paid off on the Victory. He then returned to the Merchant Service and served in 1859 as second mate of the tea clipper Falcon under Captain Maxton. Subsequently he was attached to Lord Elgin’s embassy and placed in charge of a lorcha by Lindsay & Co., of Shanghai. As a member of Lord Elgin’s staff, he was present at the taking of the Taku Forts and was on the house-boat which was towed to Tientsin by one of the gunboats; and he remained there until the treaty was signed.
After this he was 13½ years in the employ of John Allan & Sons. In 1877 he joined the Loch Line and took command of the Loch Sloy, leaving her to take charge of the Loch Garry in 1885.
The Loch Garry only had two severe mishaps in her long life. In August, 1880, when running under topgallant sails off the Crozets in a heavy beam sea, the weather forebrace carried away, the fore topmast went above the eyes of the rigging and took main topgallant mast with it—and Loch Garry was a month getting to Melbourne under jury rig. She was rigged in Geelong with Kauri pine topmasts and long topgallant masts, as shewn in the [illustration]. In August, 1889, she was dismasted in a furious gale to the south’ard of the Cape. To save the ship Captain Horne was obliged to jettison some 100 tons of cargo in the shape of gunpowder, hardware, whisky, bottled beer, paper, etc. The main and mizen masts carried away close to the deck, but Captain Horne succeeded in sailing his vessel 2600 miles to Mauritius, under foresail and fore lower topsail. Here the Loch Garry was delayed some months whilst new spars were sent out from England, and she eventually reached Melbourne on 14th February, 1890, eight months out from Glasgow. After 36 years of good service, she was sold in March, 1911, to the Italians for the scrap iron price of £1800.