Crusader on the twilight watch

Crusader was widely admired as a "very handsome little ship" and considered by many to be the fastest vessel in the extensive fleet of Shaw, Savill & Albion, her owners. Built by Connells of Glasgow and launched in March 1865, she was registered at 1,058 tons (gross & net) and measured 211 feet in length with a 35 foot beam. She was, in fact, built for J. Lidgett & Sons of London but acquired by Walter Savill for his company in 1869. Employed in the burgeoning New Zealand emigrant trade, Crusader soon became one of the most popular ships on the route and was noted for her 'dryness' as well as her speed, both attributes highly favoured by her passengers. In 1877, under Captain Renaut, she ran home from Lyttleton, New Zealand, to the Lizard in a remarkable 69 days whilst on her next outward passage, she raced out from London to Port Chalmers, N.Z., in a record 65 days, a performance which has never been bettered by a commercial sailing ship. After a hugely successful career, during which she became so beloved that those who had emigrated in her formed 'The Clipper Ship Crusader Association', she was sold to the Norwegian Daniel Steen of Ljarn, near Oslo, in 1898 for £2,950. Subsequently re-rigged as a barque, she was finally broken up at Dordrecht in 1910.