The Red Jacket was in 40° S., 14° E., before there was any need to touch her topgallant sheets, and Captain Reid was evidently determined to find wind somehow, with the result that, in spite of it being the depth of winter, he was not deterred from standing far to the southward on a Great Circle course. He was rewarded by all the wind he could desire, but so great was the cold that the ship was put down by the head by the frozen spindrift which covered her to the mainmast in an icy mantle.
Her log from 26th June, when she first began to feel the benefit of the westerlies, was as follows:—
| Date. | Lat. | Long. | Weather. | Dist. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ° ′ | ° ′ | |||
| June 26 | 48 06S | 34 44E | Var. and stiff rain and sleet. | 315 |
| 27 | 50 06 | 42 19 | Wind N.W., fresh and squally with hail, very cold weather. | 330 |
| 28 | 50 54 | 49 16 | Wind W.N.W., squalls with hail showers. | 263 |
| 29 | 50 34 | 56 34 | Wind N.N.W., squalls, entire fore part of ship covered with ice. | 286 |
| 30 | 52 03 | 63 50 | Wind N.N.W., fresh with hail squalls; very cold, air 19°. | 287 |
| July 1 | 51 39 | 71 21 | Wind N.N.W., fresh, with hail squalls, latter part light, air 19°. | 286 |
| 2 | 50 29 | 72 26 | Wind S.W., first part calm, latter part heavy gales and heavy sea. | |
| 3 | 50 12 | 80 30 | Wind W.S.W., first part heavy gales, latter part fresh breezes, high sea, freezing. | 312 |
| 4 | 49 25 | 88 30 | Wind variable, fresh gales and heavy sea, freezing, rain and sleet. | 300 |
| 5 | 49 13 | 95 00 | Wind N.N.W., first part light and heavy rain, latter stiff, with heavy squalls. | 288 |
| 6 | 48 38 | 104 15 | Wind W.N.W., strong gales and squalls, heavy sea. | 400 |
| 7 | 47 25 | 112 44 | Wind variable in strength and direction. | 299 |
| 8 | 46 38 | 119 44 | Wind N.N.W., stiff and squalls, with rain. | 350 |
| 9 | 45 09 | 129 18 | Wind N.N.W., strong and squally, with rain. | 357 |
| 10 | 42 42 | 134 38 | Wind N.N.W., fine weather. | 334 |
| 11 | 40 36 | 139 35 | Wind N.W., heavy squalls and rain. | 245 |
| 12 | Wind N.N.W., fine weather. Made King’s Island at 10.50 p.m., crossed bar at 11.50 p.m. | 300 |
Red Jacket made the passage from Rock Light to Port Phillip Heads in 69 days 11 hours 15 minutes; passage under sail 67 days 13 hours, total distance run 13,880 miles.
The Mermaid, which gained such an advantage over the Red Jacket in the earlier part of the passage, ran her easting down a good deal further to the northward, and did not arrive till the 17th July, having made a passage of 74½ days.
Red Jacket set sail on her homeward passage on 3rd August. She was not in very good trim this time, being too light and very much down by the stern, however, she still continued to show her quality, constantly logging 17 or 18 knots in fresh breezes and 14 and 15 knots when close-hauled. Only once on the homeward passage were her topsails close-reefed and only once did she ship any water. This was on the 31st August in a heavy squall with foresail and fore and main topgallant sails set.
She rounded the Horn on the 23rd August, only 20 days out, her week’s work averaging out as follows:
- 1st week 231 miles per day.
- 2nd „ 307 „ „
- 3rd „ 254 „ „
But on the day after she had rounded the Horn, she had a narrow escape of being embayed by ice, and one of her passengers gave the following account of her danger to the newspapers:—“On the morning of 24th August, I was roused out of sleep by the noise of shortening sail and the look-out singing out land. Ice had been seen some time before, but the solid masses had been supposed in the dark to be land. On getting out I found we were in smooth water and large masses of ice floating about us. As the day broke, we found ourselves sailing along a lake of water not unlike a canal. The ice seemed to extend on every side in solid fields as far as the eye could reach without any prospect of getting out, so that we had to follow the channel. All sail was clewed up except the topsails, and as there was a good breeze we proceeded along at about 4 or 5 knots. Our situation at this time seemed most appalling, as we appeared to be getting further into the ice, so that by 10 or 11 o’clock we were almost making up our minds to remain for weeks in this fearful situation.