The iron wool clipper Brilliant in Australian waters

The full-rigged iron ship Brilliant was built to their own account by J. Duthie Sons & Co. at Aberdeen in 1877. Registered at 1,666 tons gross (1,613 net), she measured 255 feet in length with a 40 foot beam and was classed 100A1 by Lloyd's surveyors. Intended for the Australian wool trade, she was widely regarded as Duthie's finest ship and enjoyed a long-standing though friendly rivalry with another of the celebrated wool clippers Pericles which, coincidentally, had been launched on the very same day, albeit from a different Aberdeen yard. In 1879 they were the only two ships to make Sydney in under 80 days from the Channel and although this proved a record for both vessels, many other similar duels followed over the years. Whilst Pericles frequently made slightly better time on the outward passage however, nothing could catch Brilliant on the homeward journey and her three consecutive daily runs of 340, 345 and 338 miles in the 'roaring forties' were never bettered by an iron sailing ship. Always immaculately maintained, Brilliant was often referred to as "Duthie's yacht" and her original owners kept her for almost thirty years before selling her to an Italian owner in 1905 who finally sold her for breaking at Genoa just before the Great War.