Swimming Along - 'The Torrens'

Built for Captain H.R. Angel by James Laing at Sunderland in 1875, the Torrens was registered at 1,335 tons gross and measured 222 feet in length with a 38 foot beam. A beautiful clipper, comparable with Cutty Sark and Thermopylae, she was probably the most favored passenger ship on the London to Adelaide run in part because of her speed - her fastest passage, 64 days Plymouth to Adelaide, dock to dock, remains a record on that route for any sailing trader. The writer Joseph Conrad, who would serve as chief officer (1891-1893) later wrote of her as being, 'A ship of brilliant qualities, the way the ship had of letting big seas slip under her did one's heart good to watch. It resembled so much an exhibition of intelligent grace and unerring skill that it could fascinate even the least seamanlike of our passengers'.

After a hugely successful and very profitable career in British registry, she was sold to Italian owners soon after 1900. Twice run ashore within five years, on the second occasion in 1910 she was once again salvaged but deemed too damaged for further repairs and broken up.