28/10/1886 - 15/01/1887

Via Plymouth (2 Nov). The TORRENS arrived on Saturday, and as she headed up the coastline and took a sweep towards Glenelg to salute her resident owner there she looked a very handsome vessel. She then hauled off, and would have anchored early in the day, but the wind fell light, and it was past noon before reaching the Bell Buoy. Then several of her passengers desired to land, and a few bound to Melbourne were in excellent time for transshipment to the S.S. Victorian, which awaited the process in the outer harbour. Captain Angel has been voyaging for many years on this trade, and its advantages must be appreciated, as he is on his thirty-first trip to this colony. In 1853 he took a vessel named the Briton to Hobart, and in 1854 the captain visited Portland in the Albion. In 1856 he brought the Albion to this port and has stuck to it ever since, though he has frequently changed his ship. His present command has been the crack vessel, and in her some excellent passages have been made, although the present voyage was somewhat lengthened out by light baffling winds when crossing the easting, especially in that position about St. Paul’s and Amsterdam Island, where the distances have been rated at over 300 miles per day, but on the present passage only reached 80. But the ship had a lot of jovial people on board, and the time was passed pleasantly, therefore some were sorry the voyage was over. The ship left London on October 28, and Plymouth on November 2, with a full cargo and every available berth occupied. On quitting Plymouth had a couple of days’ foul weather, and then a slant of north-west wind set in, which gave a fine chance for southerly progress, and the ship made some good days’ work, and crossed the Line on the nineteenth day out in long 33º W. A long reach was made along the Brazilian coastline, and when off Pernambuco the captain had an opportunity of sending a ship mail on shore by a catamaran. Then there followed a succession of head winds, and having sighted and passed Tristan d’Acunha made some good work towards the meridian of the Cape, which was cleared on the forty-seventh day out in 43º S. The easting was peculiarly marked by extremely light winds, and when off the islands a strange circumstance was observed, the sea being thick with medusæ. On reaching the longitude of Cape Leuwin the barometer suddenly fell to 29.20, and on January 9 there came on a heavy north-west gale, which induced the master to scud the ship for several hours. Some of the sails were blown away, but no serious damage resulted, and the gale gave place to northerly winds, which kept the vessel tight jammed on a wind till making Cape Willoughby at 1a.m. on the 15th. The Torrens then shaped a course through by way of Backstairs Passage, and made a good run up the Gulf. Register 16/1/1887