In 1878 she again tried for a tea cargo, crossing from Sydney in 43
days: after a very tempestuous passage of 83 days from London to
Sydney, during which she continually had to be hove to, indeed, Captain
Phillip declared that he had never met with such heavy gales during 30
years’ experience, even so she was only 79 days from the Channel to
Cape Otway.
She found tea freights slumping very badly at Shanghai, and was finally
placed on the berth for general cargo only at 30s. per 50 cubic feet.
_Salamis_ left Shanghai on 26th November in company with _Thermopylae_,
which was the only sailing ship to get a tea cargo for London. The two
ships made the Straits of Sunda on 15th December, but were compelled to
anchor off Sumatra owing to the strong N.E. current. Here they found a
fleet of 37 sail all vainly trying to get past Thwart-the-way Island.
Of this fleet the first to get through was _Thermopylae_ after several
ineffectual attempts, but she was closely followed by her iron sister
ship; clearing Java Head on 29th December after a delay of 14 days, the
two sisters squared away for the S.E. trades, and left the fleet of 37
ships to wait patiently until the N.E. current slackened.
_Salamis_ carried the trades to 32° S., and then made some fine running
to the Australian Coast, her best day’s work being 336 miles. On 26th
January, 1879, she arrived off Port Phillip Heads and anchored off
Queenscliff to await orders. She was sent up to Sydney and loaded coal
alongside the _Cutty Sark_. On 18th March _Cutty Sark_ sailed for
Shanghai with 1150 tons of coal, _Salamis_ followed on the 20th with
1200 tons of coal. Unfortunately I have no details of the race across,
except that _Salamis_ made the run in 37 days. Both ships failed to get
a tea cargo for the London market, and _Cutty Sark_ went off to Manila,
whilst _Salamis_ went to Foochow, and took a tea cargo from there to
Melbourne, which she reached in time to load wool home, after a very
light weather passage of 64 days. After this unsatisfactory voyage
_Salamis_ was kept steadily in the Melbourne trade, with the exception
of one passage to Sydney.
When the Aberdeen White Star sold their sailing ships, _Salamis_ went
to the Norwegians, who stripped the yards off her mizen mast and turned
her into a barque. After several weary years of threadbare old age,
the beautiful little clipper was finally wrecked on Malden Island in
the South Pacific on 20th May, 1905.
The Colonial Barque “Woollahra.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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