The Smyrna, which was built on fuller lines than most of Thompson’s ships, came to a tragic end, being run into by the steamer Moto on 28th April, 1888, during a thick fog off the Isle of Wight, when outward bound to Sydney, and sank with Captain Taylor and 11 of her crew.

The “Harbinger.”

The Harbinger was built to lower the colours of the wonderful Torrens in the Adelaide trade, being fitted to carry a large number of passengers. Indeed she was the last sailing ship specially built and fitted for carrying passengers. In more ways than one she was a remarkable vessel, and differed in many interesting details from the stock type of Clyde-built iron clipper.

In her rigging and sail plan, she had various fittings which were peculiar to herself.

To begin with, she was the only iron ship which had the old-fashioned channels to spread the rigging: and in another way she went back many years by never bending a sail on her crossjack yard. Instead of this sail she spread a large hoisting spanker, and she always carried a main spencer or storm trysail, a sail very often seen on down east Cape Horners, who found it very useful when trying to make westing off Cape Stiff.

The famous Cutty Sark was fitted with a spencer yard and sail at her launch, but I doubt if she ever used it; at any rate, Captain Woodget told me he never used it, for the simple reason that he never hove the Cutty Sark to in ten voyages to Australia. I have several of Harbinger’s abstract logs and I can find no instance of her using this sail either.

Harbinger was a very lofty ship, measuring 210 feet from the water-line to her main truck, and, unlike the Hesperus, she always carried her skysail yards crossed. Her jibbooms were of unusual length—I say jibbooms, for outside her ordinary jibboom she carried a sliding gunter or flying jibboom. On these she set a whole fleet of jibs, and, as if they were not sufficient, she had cliphooks for a storm staysail on the fore stay.

“HARBINGER.”

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