On 28th February at noon she was in Lat. 52° 38′ N., Long. 22° 45′ W., and her run of 436 nautical miles from that position to her noon position on 1st March gives her the greatest day’s work ever accomplished, to the best of my belief, by a sailing ship. The 1st March entry “Wind south—bore away for the North Channel,” has misled some nautical critics, who have plotted her as being up with Rathlin Island when she bore away, without noticing the direction of the wind. The log is rather ambiguously worded, but her run of 436 miles puts her some 30 miles west of Achill Head—and she then bore away north, bringing the wind on the starboard quarter. If she had been off Rathlin Island she would have had to bring the wind on the starboard bow for the course through the North Channel.
Captain Charles McDonald always hoped to get a day’s run of 500 miles out of the James Baines, and firmly believed she could do it; but he never succeeded in beating the Lightning’s records.
The Red Jacket, which was under the command of Captain Asa Eldridge, of American packet ship fame, had strong winds from S.E. to W.S.W. with rain, snow and hail. As with Lightning, the first half of her passage was the slowest half and for the first seven days she could only average 182 miles a day. But with practically the same weather, it is interesting to compare the performances of the two vessels as they approached the Irish Coast. Red Jacket’s last six runs were 219, 413, 374, 343, 300, and 371, giving a total of 2020 and an average of 336.
The only vessel that has ever beaten this six-day run is the famous Cutty Sark, which in 1876, before her wings were clipped, ran 2163 miles in six days in the roaring forties, when outward bound to Sydney.
“Red Jacket’s” First Voyage to Australia.
At Liverpool Captain Eldridge handed over his command to Captain Samuel Reid, who managed to get the Red Jacket away for Australia, as one of the White Star regular packets, 10 days ahead of Captain Forbes. The Red Jacket sailed on 4th May, 1854, one day behind a new Nova Scotian built Black Ball packet named the Mermaid.
On the 10th May the two ships were off Oporto, and kept close to each other as far as Teneriffe; the N.E. trades were poor and it was a light weather passage to the line, which was crossed on 29th May by the Red Jacket, the Mermaid being then in 1° north.
From this point the Red Jacket, steering a more westerly course, had light and variable winds, whilst the Mermaid was better treated and reached the latitude of the Cape five days ahead, and still held better winds, being actually 1397 miles ahead of the Red Jacket on 15th June. Red Jacket, indeed, did not really get going until 26th June, but from that date her log is so remarkable that I give it below.