SPAR PLAN OF LOCH TORRIDON.

Bowsprit

 25 feet.

Jibboom (outside bowsprit)

 31 feet.

Bowsprit and jibboom (over all)

 56 feet.
SparsForemast
feet		Mainmast
feet		Mizen mast
feet

Mast—deck to truck

148 152 152

Lower mast

687171

Doubling

181818

Topmast

575757

Doubling

 7 7½ 7½

Topgallant mast

273028

Royal mast

 21½ 22½22

Lower yard

888888

Lower topsail yard

787878

Upper topsail yard

747474

Topgallant yard

565656

Royal yard

 42½ 42½ 42½

Spars of jiggermast

Length in feet

Mast—deck to truck

128

Lower mast

70

Doubling

12

Topmast

71

Spanker gaff

38

Spanker boom

46

Jaws of gaff to head of topsail

72

Her royals were 18 feet deep, measured at the bunt; and the depth of her courses was 38 feet measured at the bunt. She also had a spencer gaff on her mizen, measuring 24½ feet. Thus it will be seen that, though she did not carry stunsails, she had plenty of canvas.

Loch Torridon had a poop 36 feet long, a half-deck for apprentices 16 feet long, a midship house 25 feet long, and her topgallant foc’s’le measured 49 feet in length.

SAIL PLAN OF “LOCH MOIDART” AND “LOCH TORRIDON.”

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Captain Pattman, who commanded her for over 26 years, gave the following testimony to her qualities, when interviewed by the Shipping Gazette:—“Being perfectly sparred, the ship is easy to steer, and even in the worst weather the smallest boy on board can keep her on her course.”

Anyone who has felt how hard-mouthed the average four-mast barque can be will appreciate this quality and envy the lucky quartermasters of such a ship. On Loch Torridon there was certainly no excuse for bad steering, and the most strictly adhered to rule on board was that any man or boy found more than half a point off his course was at once sent away from the wheel in disgrace. There were two other factors in Loch Torridon’s success, which she owed to her enterprising commander. Captain Pattman believed in British crews, and took the trouble to train his apprentices.

Regarding the first, he once remarked:—“Give me a Britisher everytime, drunken and bad as he is. The best crew I ever had during the past 15 years I shipped in London last summer (1907). They were all Britishers. The view I hold on this question is that the British sailing ship sailor cannot be equalled, let alone beaten. But the difficulty I have experienced is in regard to steamship A.B.’s. I shipped one of these fellows some time ago, and it turned out that he knew nothing of sailing ship ways. He could not steer, and he knew a good deal less than one of our second voyage apprentices. As compared with such a man, I say, ‘Give me a foreigner who has been at sea on sailing ships for two or three years and who knows the way things are done on a sailing ship.’ I find, however, that the foreigner who has been a few years in British ships becomes more insolent, more disobedient and more difficult to manage than the British sail-trained seaman.”