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town or sign on with other captains desperate for experienced sail-
ors. Forbes obviated this threat by the simple expedient of arrest-
ing his entire crew for 'insubordination' and handing them over to
the police. Marco Polo was loaded and ready to sail in good time.
Forbes then dropped the charges against his men, brought them
back aboard and weighed anchor. He had an excellent return passage
via the Horn of 76 days and regained Liverpool on Boxing Day. When
the news of her return went round the town, amazed crowds
gathered on the quayside. There, sure enough, was the Marco Polo
with a painted slogan hung from her rigging: ' THE FASTEST SHIP IN THE
WORLD ' . Forbes had comfortably made good his boast: he had cir-
cumnavigated the globe in 175 days, of which 144 had been spent at
sea.
It was an amazing record but Forbes intended to beat it. At the
start of his next trip he announced to the passengers, 'Ladies and
gentlemen, last trip I astonished the world with the sailing of this
ship. This trip I intend to astonish God Almighty.' Marco Polo had a
good outward voyage of 75 days. At Melbourne she turned round in
less than a fortnight. Forbes now wore as far to the south as pos-
sible in the hope of finding the westerlies at their most ferocious.
He crossed the sixtieth parallel, and took his ship well within the
drift-ice limit, in the middle of the southern winter. And he paid the
price. Marco Polo found herself among the ice and had part of her
copper sheathing ripped away. The captain's gamble had not paid off
this time but he still completed the round trip in exactly six calendar
months.
In 1854 the Black Ball Line took delivery of their latest ship,
the American-built Lightning. On her journey across the Atlantic she
established the remarkable record of 436 miles in 24 hours. Great
things were, therefore, expected of her on the Australia run. There
was only one man who could be relied upon to get the best out of
her. 'Bully' Forbes, now commodore of the fleet, took Lightning out
 
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