“LOCH TORRIDON.”
With Perforated Sails.

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Lauderdale was a well-known ship in the China trade, and the Christiana Thompson was, of course, the Aberdeen White Star liner.

On her first three voyages under Captain Pattman, Loch Torridon took first, second, and third class passengers out to Melbourne from Glasgow.

She left Glasgow on 2nd March, 1883, with 7 saloon, 33 steerage passengers and 12 prize stallions for Port Phillip. Passed Rothesay Bay on the 5th and the Tuskar on the 8th. Running down the easting she made 1911 miles in one week, and was only 22 days between the Cape meridian and Hobson’s Bay, passing through the Heads 74 days out from the Tuskar.

At Melbourne she took on board 320 horses, 2 cows, 3 dogs, 12 sheep and 27 Chinese grooms for Calcutta. The trade in walers between Australia and Calcutta was a very lucrative one in those days. On the Loch Torridon a new system was adopted for taking the horses on board. They were walked from the railway trucks up gangways on to the main deck, then down other specially laid gangways through the hatchways and so into their stalls. This method proved an unqualified success and saved four days’ time on the old method of slinging them aboard. The hatch gangways were left in position, and while at sea the horses were exercised on deck in batches, every horse getting 24 hours a week on deck. This would have been impossible on a ship with an incumbered deck, but here the fine clean sweep of Loch Torridon’s main deck came in useful as a sort of training ground.

Sailing from Melbourne on 20th June, 1883, the Loch Torridon was unfortunate in encountering very bad weather between Cape Otway and the Leeuwin, in which she lost 27 horses and 2 Chinese grooms. She arrived in Calcutta on 1st August, 42 days out, and cleared £1250 on the trip after paying all expenses such as fittings, grooms and horse food. From Calcutta she took 103 days to London.

On the 26th May, 1884, Loch Torridon again left Glasgow for Melbourne with 8 saloon, 8 second class and 34 steerage passengers, and the usual Clyde cargo of pig iron, pipes, bar iron, heavy hardware, bricks, boards, ale and whisky. She put into Rothesay Bay for shelter from the weather on 30th May, and passed the Tuskar on 2nd June. Crossed the line on 1st July in 27° W. The S.E. trades were southerly and she had to beat along the Brazilian coast to 17° S. Passed the Cape meridian on 30th July in 44° S. On 10th and 11th August she logged 642 miles, was 23 days from the Cape meridian to Port Phillip, and arrived in Melbourne 23rd August, 82 days from the Tuskar. She then took coal from Newcastle, N.S.W., to Frisco, making the run across the Pacific in 58 days: and loaded a grain cargo home.

In 1885 she ran out to Melbourne from Glasgow with 58 passengers in 89 days, crossed to Frisco with Newcastle coal in 58 days, and took 49,317 bags of wheat from Frisco to Hull.