Northern Waters: The Australian Clipper Loch Vennachar; and Clearing the Land: The Waimate bound out for New Zealand

Loch Vennacher, 1,485 tons, was one of a fleet of iron wool clippers built for the Glasgow Shipping Company by Thomson's on the Clyde. Launched in 1875 and the finest of all the 'Lochs', she was an unlucky ship despite her speed and barely survived when caught in a cyclone in the Indian Ocean in April 1892. Badly damaged, she was repaired and put back into service only to be sunk in a collision in the Thames Estuary in November 1901. Raised and repaired at enormous cost, she was finally wrecked on Kangaroo Island, off Adelaide, South Australia, in September 1905 with no survivors.

Waimate, originally named Hindostan, was built for the New Zealand Shipping Company's fleet by Blumer's at Sunderland in 1874. Registered at 1,124 tons, she measured 220 feet in length with a 35 foot beam and, like her consorts, was intended for safety and comfort rather than speed. The company, founded in 1873 to service the expanding emigrant trade to New Zeland, prospered from the start and its ships soon acquired a reputation for being well found, well manned and splendidly maintainted. Waimate's best passage was 71 days from Lyttleton (New Zealand) to the Scillies in 1883 but there were other good runs when the wind suited her. Sold to Russian owners when the New Zealand trade went over to steam, Waimate was renamed Valkyrie but went missing in 1899 and no trace of her was ever found.