After Beazley sold her she was for some years in the South American
trade. Then during the Russo-Japanese war she was captured by the
Japanese whilst under Russian colours. The Japs sold her to Mr. J. J.
R. Matheson, of Ladysmith, British Columbia, and for a short while she
was in the timber trade. The world war found her lying in a New Zealand
port, doing duty as a coal hulk for the Paparoa Coal Co. Here the Otago
Rolling Mills bought her at a stiff price, and like many another old
sailing ship, she came out of her retirement with a new set of wings in
order to brave the German submarines and keep the old Red Duster flying.
In 1916, she got ashore on the coast when making for Bluff Harbour in a
gale of wind, and there she lay on her side in the wash of the tide for
96 days. At last, with tonnage pretty near worth its weight in gold, an
attempt was made to float her. For this purpose a large steam trawler,
fitted with pumps to throw 10,000 gallons a minute, was brought down to
this most southerly port in the Empire. No progress, however, was made
until a journalist named Bannerman, with the inquisitiveness of his
kind, got down into the _Antiope’s_ fore peak by means of a rope ladder
and discovered the chief leak. Then, with mats over the bow, the pumps
slowly overcame the water, the _Antiope_ righted and finally floated.
She was then towed round to Port Chalmers, docked, repaired and once
more fitted for sea. From Port Chalmers she ran across to Newcastle,
N.S.W., in ballast, making the trip in the good time of 12 days. Here
she loaded coal for Valparaiso, after refusing a £9000 freight to the
United Kingdom. Again she made a good passage. From Chile she went up
to San Francisco. And she is still earning money at the wonderful age
of 54 years.
“Theophane.”
The _Theophane_ was probably the fastest of all Heap’s ships, and was
built on sharper lines than the _Antiope_ or _Marpesia_. On her maiden
passage—the abstract log of which I give in the Appendix—she went out
to Hobson’s Bay under Captain Follett in 66 days.
Her first 12 passages to Melbourne were 66, 75, 75, 70, 80, 73, 73, 82,
73, 75, 79 and 77 days, giving an average of 75 days, this being from
the Channel.
On the 11th December, 1891, she sailed from Newcastle, N.S.W., with a
cargo of coal for Valparaiso, and was never heard of again.
Messrs. Aitken & Lilburn and the Loch Line of Glasgow.
The best known line of sailing ships running to Australia since the
use of iron shipbuilding has undoubtedly been the famous Loch Line of
Glasgow.
[Illustration: “THEOPHANE.”]
[Illustration: “DHARWAR.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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