And as she grew older, her splendid average in no way deteriorated. In 1896 she went out to Melbourne in 76 days, and in 1897, her last voyage under the British flag, she went out in 77 days. She was then sold to the Russians, but they kept her going. On 4th February, 1902, she arrived at Port Adelaide from Cardiff only 73 days out, whilst in 1904 she made the best passage home from the Antipodes of the year, from Adelaide to the Wight in 69 days. This beautiful ship came to her end at the beginning of December, 1909. She had sailed from Frederickstadt on 29th November, timber laden for Melbourne, and stranded near Christiansand in a heavy fog; she was floated again, but was found to be so damaged that it was not thought worth the money to repair her, so on 28th April, 1910, she was sold to the shipbreakers. Devitt & Moore’s “Collingwood.” _Collingwood_ was Devitt & Moore’s first venture into the Melbourne wool trade. She was one of the early Aberdeen built iron clippers, and thoroughly looked her part. Though she made no very remarkable passage, her voyages were very regular, and it was not often that she missed the wool sales. You could not wear out these early iron ships, and the _Collingwood_ has the distinction of being on the “Ships’ Roll of Honour in the Great War,” being sunk by a German submarine on 12th March, 1917, whilst under Norwegian colours. The story is of the usual kind. The officers and crew of the U-boat were drunk with champagne and cognac obtained from the French ship _Jules Gommes_, which they had sunk two hours previously. The crew of the _Collingwood_ were given ten minutes only to get clear of the ship. The captain, being a neutral, naturally wanted his papers examined for contraband, but the German U-boat commander sneeringly told him that there would be time enough to examine them when the submarine got home, and so one more was added to Germany’s long list of crimes, and the famous old flyer sank beneath the waves after 45 years of honest service. “Hesperus” and “Aurora,” the First Iron Ships of the Orient Line. In 1873-4 Robert Steele & Co., the celebrated builders and designers of some of the fastest and most beautiful tea clippers, built two magnificent iron clippers for the Orient Line. These were the _Hesperus_ and _Aurora_, sister ships. [Illustration: “HESPERUS.” _From a lithograph._] The _Aurora_ unfortunately was destroyed by fire on her first homeward passage, through spontaneous combustion of her wool cargo. This occurred on 9th August, 1875, in 40° N., 35° W., and she was finally abandoned in flames with fore and mainmasts gone.