 |
FAMOUS SHIPS |
|
FAMOUS SHIPS |
The TORRENS
James
Laing, of Sunderland, built the Torrens
in 1875. She
was built for Captain H. R. Angel to his specifications and launched in October,
her registered tonnage being 1,335 tons gross, 1,276 net.
She had a length of 222 feet 1 inch; breadth, 38 feet 1 inch; and depth,
21 feet 5 inches.
She was one of the later ships build with composite methods, having
beautiful teak planking over iron frames.
She was very heavily sparred, with a skysail on the main and stunsail
booms aloft.
She
was sharp forward but a splendid, dry sea boat.
It was not unusual for her to be able to make 300 miles in one day while
her passengers were able to take their exercise on a dry deck.
No ship had a better record than the Torrens in the Australian trade and remained popular with passengers
until she was sold to the Italians toward the end of her life.
The
Torrens was one of those ships that, while very fast in the
“roaring forties”, made her excellent passages due to her ability to ghost
along when hardly an air could be detected.
On such occasions, it was not unusual for her to pass other famous
clipper ships as if they were at anchor.
Captain
H. R. Angel commanded her for the first fifteen voyages undertaken to Australia.
Her biggest run in 24 hours was 336 miles, and her fastest speed through
the water was 14 knots according to Captain Angel.
Her greatest run was 370 miles done later in life under Captain Falkland
Angel, Captain H. R. Angel’s son, in 1897, when she reportedly logged 16 ½
knots.
She
was especially designed to carry passengers for the Australian trade, her poop
reaching almost all the way to the mainmast, being 80 feet long.
She also has the distinction of being the last sailing ship to carry
passengers in the Australian trade with the exception of the famous “Lochs.”
Under Captain H. R. Angel the Torrens
proved to be a wonderfully lucky ship.
She set up the sailing-ship record for the shortest passage ever made
between Plymouth and Adelaide, which was 64 days.
Her average passage from Plymouth to Adelaide in her fifteen voyages
under Captain H. R. Angel was 74 days, a record that has never been equaled by
any other sailing ship in the Australian trade.
On his homeward passages, Captain H. R. Angel always took things easy,
for the benefit of his passengers, stopping at Cape Town, St. Helena and
Ascension.
The
Torrens was managed by the Elder Line, but Captain Angel held most
of the shares of the vessel.
Therefore, he had a special house-flag as Commodore of the Elder Line
that no other ship of that line had.
Captain
Angel retired from the sea in the autumn of 1890, handing over the reigns of the
ship to Captain W. H. Cope.
The good luck of the Torrens
also seemed to leave with the old skipper, at least for a time.
The Torrens was always a happy
ship under Captain Angel, who was a strong disciplinarian but no bully.
He was also a very fine seaman and an excellent manager of the ship and
her fortunes.
Captain
Copes first passage was a very unlucky one.
The Torrens was caught in a
sudden squall on November 30th, 1890, and lost her foremast at the
deck, everything above the cap of the main lower mast, her mizzen topgallant
mast and all the yards on the mizzen except the lower topsail and crossjack.
She was towed into Pernambuco, the tow taking eight days and costing the
owners of the ship 2,000 pounds.
It cost an additional 700 pounds to supply new spars for the ship.
In addition to her dismasting, she also caught fire, but the steamer Mariner put her hose on the fire and it was put out.
On
this trip the Torrens did not reach
Adelaide until April 26th, 1891, when she was 179 days out – by far
the worst passage of her career.
The next two passages of the ship were of interest mainly due to the fact
that her chief officer was none other than Joseph Conrad.
After the Torrens, Joseph
Conrad quit the sea to become the famous author of such books as “Lord Jim”
and “The Rover.”
Captain
W. H. Copes continued to command the ship until the autumn of 1896, his best
passage being out to Adelaide, arriving there on December 6th, 1895,
79 days out. Captain
Falkland Angel, a son of H. R. Angel, succeeded him.
The second Captain Angel was a sail carrier.
On his first outward passage he drove the ship to Adelaide in 75 days, on
his second he was only 2 days longer.
On
his third passage out he arrived in Adelaide 103 days out due to the fact that
he ran into an iceberg during the passage, resulting in her bow smashed in, her
bowsprit and jib-boom gone and nothing set forward above the lower topsail.
The
Torrens made four more voyages under the Elder’s house flag she
was sold to the Italians.
On his last voyage Captain Angel picked up a supply of explosives of all
sorts, relics of the Boer War, at St. Helena to bring home.
This was a charter by the British Government.
While she was being towed up the Thames at the end of this passage a
vessel attempted to pass between her and the tug.
This vessel was cut down by the Torrens
and sunk. There
was great fear of an explosion aboard the Torrens,
but she was hardly damaged at all.
Captain Angel was not blamed at all for the incident.
It
was at this time that Captain Angel decided to sell his ship to the Italians, as
the ship was now eating up too much money for repairs.
The Italians soon ran the ship ashore, but she was refloated.
In 1910 the Italians again ran her onto the rocks.
She was again refloated, but this time she was towed to the shipbreakers
to be broken up.