“ILLAWARRA.”

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Theophane made a good try to beat the City of Agra’s time; she made no less than three attempts to enter the Heads on the ebb tide, but each time the wind dropped in the rip and she was drifted back and at last was compelled to wait until the next day and come in on the flood.

Ben Voirlich again made some big runs, her best day’s work being 349 miles and her best week 2100 miles.

Loch Maree had to be careful not to ship heavy water, as she had four valuable Clydesdale stallions on her main deck. Thyatira was in company with the little Berean for three days to the south’ard, parting from her eventually in 40° S., 131° E. Berean arrived in Launceston on 9th August, 87 days out from Prawle Point.

The Big “Illawarra.”

In 1881, Devitt & Moore launched out with a real big ship, the Illawarra, and put her into the Sydney trade. She was not so fine lined as the earlier iron clippers, for the competition of steam and reduced freights were making good carrying capacity a necessity for a money-making ship. Nevertheless Illawarra had a very fair turn of speed, and her average of passages both outward and homeward was under 90 days.

She will be chiefly remembered as a cadet ship under the Brassey scheme; she succeeded the Hesperus, and under Captain Maitland carried premium cadets from 1899 to 1907. In that year Devitt & Moore made a contract to take 100 Warspite boys round the world, and as they did not consider the Illawarra large enough, they sold her to the Norwegians and bought the Port Jackson.

The Norwegians abandoned the old Illawarra in the North Atlantic during March, 1912, when she was on a passage from Leith to Valparaiso, her crew being taken off by the British steamer Bengore Head.