_Aristides_ was kept on the Melbourne run until 1889, when she went out to Sydney in 85 days. From this date she was kept in the Sydney trade. She usually had a full passenger list and being perfectly run like all the Aberdeen ships she was a favourite both in Sydney and Melbourne. Captain Kemball retired in 1887, and Captain Spalding had her until the early nineties, then Captain Allan took her over; her last commander was Captain Poppy, who was lost in her. Her best 24-hour run that I have record of was 320 miles. Her passages, both outward and homeward, were very regular, from 78 to 88 days as a rule, but she never beat the times of her maiden voyage. When the Aberdeen White Star sold their sailing ships, they refused to part with the _Aristides_, and she remained under their flag till the end. On 28th May, 1903, she sailed from Caleta Buena with nitrate of soda for San Francisco and was posted as missing. H.M. ships _Amphion_ and _Shearwater_ made a search amongst the islands on her route for the missing ship, but no trace of her was ever found. “Smyrna.” The _Smyrna_, which was built on fuller lines than most of Thompson’s ships, came to a tragic end, being run into by the steamer _Moto_ on 28th April, 1888, during a thick fog off the Isle of Wight, when outward bound to Sydney, and sank with Captain Taylor and 11 of her crew. The “Harbinger.” The _Harbinger_ was built to lower the colours of the wonderful _Torrens_ in the Adelaide trade, being fitted to carry a large number of passengers. Indeed she was the last sailing ship specially built and fitted for carrying passengers. In more ways than one she was a remarkable vessel, and differed in many interesting details from the stock type of Clyde-built iron clipper. In her rigging and sail plan, she had various fittings which were peculiar to herself. To begin with, she was the only iron ship which had the old-fashioned channels to spread the rigging: and in another way she went back many years by never bending a sail on her crossjack yard. Instead of this sail she spread a large hoisting spanker, and she always carried a main spencer or storm trysail, a sail very often seen on down east Cape Horners, who found it very useful when trying to make westing off Cape Stiff. The famous _Cutty Sark_ was fitted with a spencer yard and sail at her launch, but I doubt if she ever used it; at any rate, Captain Woodget told me he never used it, for the simple reason that he never hove the _Cutty Sark_ to in ten voyages to Australia. I have several of _Harbinger’s_ abstract logs and I can find no instance of her using this sail either.