The Lucky “Nineveh.” The _Nineveh_, built the same year as the _Ethiopian_, was an extremely lucky ship in her freights and passengers and made a great deal of money. Old Stephen Thompson was so pleased that he gave Captain Barnet a banquet at the Holborn Restaurant, and all through the dinner kept toasting “the lucky _Nineveh_.” The “Jerusalem.” These wooden clippers were often very tender coming home with wool, as the following reminiscence given by Coates in his _Good Old Days of Shipping_ will show:—“Apropos of _Jerusalem_, I remember a most exciting race with the large American ship _Iroquois_. We were homeward bound from the Colonies, flying light and very crank, a not uncommon condition with a wool cargo. The Yank was first sighted on our quarter, the wind being quarterly, blowing moderately, though squally at times. “Whilst the wind remained so the _Iroquois_ had no chance, but when it freshened the _Jerusalem_ heeled over to such an extent that it necessitated sail being taken in. Soon the American was ploughing along to leeward carrying her three topgallant sails and whole mainsail and going as steady as a die, whilst the _Jerusalem_ was flying along with fore and main lower topgallants and reefed mainsail, but heeling over to such a degree that one could barely stand upright, the water roaring up through the lee scuppers, and during the squalls lipping in over the rail. “In a short time the topgallant sails and mainsail were handed and preparations made to reef the fore topsail. By this time, however, the _Iroquois_ had just passed the beam, when, apparently, her skipper, satisfied to have passed us, snugged his ship down to three reefed topsails and we shortly after lost sight of her in a blinding squall.” And Coates goes on to say:—“To see this ship when moderately light was a great pleasure, her lines were the perfection of symmetry. In one day I remember 324 miles being got out of this ship; she was one of the first to carry double topgallant yards.” As a matter of fact, the _Jerusalem_ was generally considered the fastest ship in the fleet next to _Thermopylae_. She made several very good passages from China in the seventies of under 110 days. Captain Crutchley, in his book _My Life at Sea_, gives an instance of her speed, in describing how she raced ahead of the tea clipper _Omba_, both ships being bound up the Channel with a strong beam wind. On this occasion, however, it was the _Omba_ which was the tender ship, as she could not carry her royals though the _Jerusalem_ had all plain sail set. The _Thyatira_, Thompson’s first composite ship, was also a very ticklish vessel to handle when wool-laden. On her maiden voyage she went out to Melbourne in 77 days, but took 96 days to get home, during which passage she gave her officers much anxiety owing to her extreme tenderness. Captain Mark Breach’s First Encounter with his Owner.