The following extracts are from _Patriarch’s_ log, when homeward bound in 1878, 79 days out from Sydney. Feb. 8.—18° 41′ N., long. 38° 55′ W.—Spoke the _Sir Walter Raleigh_, Melbourne to London, 77 days out. Feb. 9.—_Sir Walter Raleigh_ still in company. Feb. 10.—_Sir Walter Raleigh_ ahead. Feb. 11.—_Sir Walter Raleigh_ dead to windward. Feb. 12 to 16.—_Sir Walter Raleigh_ still in company. In the end _Patriarch_ got home a day ahead, _Sir Walter Raleigh_ making the best passage by a day. _Sir Walter Raleigh_ was probably faster in light and moderate winds than in strong, as I can find no very big runs to her credit. On the 10th November, 1888, she left Sydney for London, wool-laden, and was wrecked near Boulogne on 29th January, 1889, when only 80 days out and almost in sight of home. Five of her crew were drowned. It was a tragic end to what promised to be the best wool passage of her career. “Loch Fyne” and “Loch Long.” These two 1200-ton sister ships from Thomson’s yard, though fine wholesome ships, were not considered quite as fast as the earlier “Lochs,” though each of them put up a 75-day passage to Melbourne, _Loch Fyne_ on her second voyage in 1877-8, and the _Loch Long_ in 1884. The _Loch Fyne_ left Lyttelton, N.Z., on 4th May, 1883, under Captain T. H. Martin, with 15,000 bags of wheat bound for the Channel for orders and never arrived. In January, 1903, _Loch Long_ arrived in Hobson’s Bay from Glasgow, commanded by Captain Strachan. From Melbourne she was sent to New Caledonia to load nickel ore. She sailed on 29th April, but failed to arrive. Portions of wreckage, however, were washed up on the Chatham Islands, which made it only too certain that she had struck on the rocks and gone down with all hands. “Aristides”—The Aberdeen White Star Flagship. In March, 1876, Messrs. Hood launched the beautiful passenger clipper _Aristides_, the largest of all Thompson’s sailing ships. Captain R. Kemball of _Thermopylae_ fame, the commodore of the Aberdeen White Star fleet, was given command of her, and she became the firm’s flagship. On her maiden voyage she sailed from London on 6th July, and arrived in Port Phillip on 18th September—74 days out (69 days from the land). Leaving Melbourne on 28th November, she arrived in the Thames on 17th February, 81 days out, beating two such well-known clippers as _Loch Maree_ and _Collingwood_, which had sailed on 27th November, by 18 days. The Aberdeen White Star ships invariably made fine maiden voyages. Their captains always left port with the firm intention of breaking the record, and they had every help from their owners, the ships being most carefully loaded with their Plimsoll marks well out of water. Crews also were picked men, and gear, of course, everything of the best. [Illustration: “ARISTIDES.” _Photo by Hall & Co., Sydney._]