She was more fortunate in her old age than most of her sisters, as she was bought by the Victorian Government and turned into a boys’ training ship, her name being changed to John Murray. For many years, until well into the late war in fact, she lay in Hobson’s Bay as spick and span as ever, occasionally making short cruises under sail for training purposes.
About the middle of the war, like many another gallant old windjammer, she was fitted out and sent to sea in the face of the German submarines and was wrecked in the Pacific.
“Loch Etive,” of Captain William Stuart and Joseph Conrad fame.
The Loch Etive, launched in November, 1877, had the honour of being commanded by Captain Stuart of Peterhead, for long the well-known skipper of the famous Tweed, and the still greater honour of having Mr. Joseph Conrad as one of her officers.
She also was a fuller ship and for some years Captain Stuart failed to get anything remarkable out of her, though he drove her unmercifully; but in 1892-3 she made two very good voyages.
“MERMERUS,” in Victoria Dock, Melbourne, 1896.
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“BRILLIANT.”