Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cape of Good Hope close to and then steered north-east until they
were clear of the Roaring Forties. Maury told them to steer for Cape
San Roque, on the northeast coast of Brazil, then swing in an east-
ward arc through the southern Atlantic in order to pick up the west-
erlies as soon as possible, passing as much as ten degrees to the
south of the Cape and remaining in the forties all the way to Aus-
tralia.
When the White Star Line's
Red Jacket
followed this course on
her maiden voyage in 1854 she went so far to the south that frozen
spray made her bow heavy. But that did not prevent her notching up
a remarkable record. She went out in 69 days and came back in 75.
She did not overhaul
Lightning's
record, established a few weeks be-
fore but she did achieve the fastest actual circuit of the globe. On 2
September she 'tied the knot' - that is she crossed her own outward
track - in a sailing time of 62 days 22 hours, a feat which has never
been bettered.
The palm for the best ever round voyage went, the following
year, to
Red Jacket
's rival, the Black Ball Line's
James Baines
. She
reached Melbourne in 63 days 18 hours 15 minutes. Her return trip
took 69 days 12 hours. She came literally within a stone's throw of
not completing the voyage: her captain, knowing that a record was
within his grasp, took some fearful risks tacking off Ireland.
James
Baines
passed the Mizenhead rocks so close that some passengers
claimed they could have hit them with a stone. But the ship came
safe to harbour to throw down the gauntlet to her rivals. They all
found her record of 133 days 6 hrs 15 mins under sail to be unassail-
able.
It goes without saying that the men who manned such ships
were 'hard-core seamen', among the toughest mariners who ever put
to sea. Drunken brawls, murders and attempted mutinies were al-
most commonplace for the polyglot crews who sailed the clippers.
Thomas Fraser, who went to sea in 1865, and whose career spanned
