It was her second voyage that made the BEN VOIRLICH famous, by breaking the iron ship record for the run out to Melbourne from the Channel. Captain McPetrie left Gravesend on November 9"', 1874 and cleared the channel on the 12"'. She had a particularly tough mate who drove the ship and her men to their limit. Thus, while down in the "roaring forties," the ships main deck was under water most of the time, and the second cabin quarters, in a big house on deck, were continually being washed out. In this type of weather she made excellent time, having several days were she made runs of over 300 miles, the best being 352 miles. She reached the Melbourne anchorage on January 14th, 65 days out from Plymouth. She came close to beating the famous THERMOPYLAE.

From 1875 to 1879 Captain Ovenstone commanded BEN VOIRLICH. His best passage was 83 days in 1877. In 1879 command was handed over to Captain Douglas. His first passage was 87 days to Sydney, but his second passage was a very good 67 days in a race with another ship, the ROMANOFF, which took 68 days. Captain Douglas went on to have two more excellent passages of 74 days in 1881 and 70 days in 1882. There were times in all of these passages when the ship exceeded 300 miles run in one day.

In 1884 the famous Captain, Bully Martin, took over command of BEN VOIRLICH. While he did not beat the other captains in passages out to Melbourne, he did have the best wool passage back to London - 89 days.

On her passage out in 1885 she had a very unpleasant experience to the southward of the Cape of Good Hope. She was scudding before a hurricane under fore and main lower topsails. At about 1 a.m. on August 6"', she was pooped by a tremendous sea, which washed away the two helmsmen and Captain Martin, who was conning them. The lee helmsmen was caught in the mizzen rigging and lashed himself there. Captain Martin and the quartermaster were hurled against a coop which was lashed to the bucket rail at the forward end of the poop. The coop was smashed to pieces. As soon as the water had run off, the two stalwart sailors picked themselves up and clawed their way back to the helm. The wheel had have its spokes gone, was smashed in half and held together only by the rim. It was also jammed in its own wreckage. The two men managed to clear away the wreckage and gain control of the ship before she broached to. She continued to be swept by mountainous seas for the next 24 hours. She lost her topgallant bulwarks, poop ladders, harness casks and hen coops. The port life-boat was smashed , both standard and steering compasses swept overboard and not a handspike was left in the racks. She managed to weather the storm out, however, without loss of life.

In 1886 Captain Martin took her to Sydney for the first time, but he had a poor passage of 94 days. She then was taken off the Australian trade and sent out to San Francisco to take part in the booming grain trade. She had an excellent passage of 124 days.

In 1891 BEN VOIRLICH was sold to the Germans. In 1903 she was purchased by the Italians and renamed her COGNATI. She served her new masters until the outbreak of WW 1. In 1908 she was nearly sunk by collision with an iceberg, but survived.

Towards the end of WW I BEN VOIRLICH was converted into an old-time prison hulk at Leith. Here she kept German prisoners. Here history ends on this sad note.