After this he was 13½ years in the employ of John Allan & Sons. In 1877 he joined the Loch Line and took command of the _Loch Sloy_, leaving her to take charge of the _Loch Garry_ in 1885. The _Loch Garry_ only had two severe mishaps in her long life. In August, 1880, when running under topgallant sails off the Crozets in a heavy beam sea, the weather forebrace carried away, the fore topmast went above the eyes of the rigging and took main topgallant mast with it—and _Loch Garry_ was a month getting to Melbourne under jury rig. She was rigged in Geelong with Kauri pine topmasts and long topgallant masts, as shewn in the illustration. In August, 1889, she was dismasted in a furious gale to the south’ard of the Cape. To save the ship Captain Horne was obliged to jettison some 100 tons of cargo in the shape of gunpowder, hardware, whisky, bottled beer, paper, etc. The main and mizen masts carried away close to the deck, but Captain Horne succeeded in sailing his vessel 2600 miles to Mauritius, under foresail and fore lower topsail. Here the _Loch Garry_ was delayed some months whilst new spars were sent out from England, and she eventually reached Melbourne on 14th February, 1890, eight months out from Glasgow. After 36 years of good service, she was sold in March, 1911, to the Italians for the scrap iron price of £1800. “Loch Vennachar.” One of the finest and fastest of the Lochs, as well as one of the most unfortunate, was the _Loch Vennachar_, launched from Thomson’s yard in August, 1875. She was usually one of the first wool clippers to get away from Melbourne, and for many years, sailing in October, she made very regular passages home, her average under Captain Bennett being 86 days for 12 passages. [Illustration: “LOCH VENNACHAR.”] [Illustration: “LOCH VENNACHAR.” _Photo lent by F. G. Layton._] Her first misfortune was in 1892, when she was dismasted during a cyclone in the Southern Indian Ocean. The following is an account of the disaster, given in the _Melbourne Argus_:—