Torrens (clipper ship)
Torrens (1875 – 1910) was a clipper designed to carry passengers and cargo between London and Port Adelaide, South Australia. She was the fastest ship to sail on that route, and the last sailing ship on which Joseph Conrad would serve before embarking on his writing career. Ship history. "Torrens" was built by James Laing of Sunderland, largely to the specifications of Captain Henry Robert Angel (1829 – June 1923). She was jointly owned by Angel and the Elder Line, but Angel was her principal owner. She was of composite construction (i.e. steel-framed) with teak planking; long, a  beam of and depth , and registered 1276 tons net. She was "heavily sparred and carried a main sky sail yard, and for many years she was the only vessel with studding sail booms running in the Australian trade". It is likely that the vessel was named in honour of Colonel Robert Torrens, a principal exponent of the economic benefits of nineteenth-century colonial trade. Angel’s elder daughter, (Emily) Flores Angel (1856–1948), performed the traditional breaking of the bottle at the launching ceremony. Passengers. "Torrens" was clearly aimed at the upper end of the market – accommodation was first and second  class passengers only. Apart from the crew, she carried "a surgeon, a stewardess and a good cow". Another luxury that would have been appreciated by passengers was an icehouse. The outward journey to Adelaide was via the Cape of Good Hope; Angel customarily entered Port Adelaide via the Backstairs Passage rather than through Investigator Strait, and on the return voyage she stopped at Cape Town and St. Helena and Ascension. She carried any number of notable passengers, but one in particular deserves a mention: Rev. C. W. Evan, first minister of Stow Memorial Church, died on board 22 August 1876 , just as she was nearing London. His wife had recently died, he was in poor health and was returning to England in the hopes of a recovery. Early voyages. "Torrens" was managed by Elder, Smith & Co. and skippered by Angel who, as Commodore of the fleet, flew a version of the company flag with a red crescent and two stars on a white field rather than white on red. Angel had previously commanded "Glen Osmond" and "Collingrove" on the same route for Elders. His time with "Torrens" was a remarkably happy one: fifteen voyages to Adelaide without serious incident; her  fastest time from Plymouth to Port Adelaide was 65 days and the slowest 85, with an average of 74 – far better than any other ship of the period. Later years. In 1890, Angel decided to retire from active sea life and handed her command to Captain W. H. Cope. From this moment, the ship's fortune changed. She lost her foremast and main topmast in 1891, and while being refitting in Pernambuco a fire broke out on board. Angel's son, Captain Falkland Angel took her command over in 1896. On the evening of 11 January 1899 she struck an  iceberg some 40 km south west of the Crozet Islands and limped into Adelaide dismasted, with her bow stoved in. Neither Cope nor Falkland Angel achieved shorter voyages than Angel's average of 74 days. The figurehead. When "Torrens" hit the iceberg and lost her foretopmast, jib-boom and bowsprit, she also lost her figurehead, modelled on Angel's daughter, Flores, and carved by Joseph Melvin. In 1973, two ANARE expeditioners discovered a headless figurehead at Sellick Bay, on the mid-west coast of Macquarie Island. There has been some speculation that this damaged figurehead of a woman may have  belonged to "Torrens". Although Macquarie Island is a considerable distance from the site of the collision at the Crozets, it is conceivable that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current could have carried it that distance, or that the figurehead even made two or more circumflotations of Antarctica. Literary connections. Joseph Conrad was Chief Officer of "Torrens" from November 1891 to June 1893 under Cope. It was on one of his two outward voyages to Australia that he showed one W. H. Jacques the draft manuscript of his first novel, "Almayer's Folly". In March 1893, on the return Port Adelaide-to-Cape  Town leg, Conrad struck up a friendship with Edward Lancelot Sanderson and the future Nobel literary laureate John Galsworthy. Galsworthy had sailed to the antipodes with the intention of meeting Robert Louis Stevenson, but by chance met Conrad instead! Conrad wrote of the "Torrens": "A ship of brilliant qualities – the way the ship had of letting big seas slip under her did one's heart good to watch. It resembled so much an exhibition of intelligent grace and unerring skill that it could fascinate even the least seamanlike of our passengers." Epilogue. In 1906,"Torrens" was sold for £1,500 (she  cost £27,257 to build) to an Italian shipping line, but after running her ashore, she was sent to the shipbreakers. They were however so taken by her aesthetic appearance that they refused to break her up, and repaired her instead. But it was not long before she again ran aground. She was finally broken up at Genoa in 1910. After retiring from active sea life, Angel set up a factory for smelting ores in Stratford, London. He retired to South Devon and was to live to 93, dying in Las Palmas after injuring himself in a fall on board  Highland Piper. The steamer was taking him to his favourite holiday spot. According to one story, the ship had struck heavy weather and he had refused to go below decks. His eldest son, Falkland Angel was able to be at his bedside before he died, probably of pneumonia. Angel's brother, Richard Angel, was also a sea captain of some note, commanding "Verulam" and "Beltana". Although clearly a strong captain and capable seaman, he was intemperate in habits, and was suspended for two years after he ran "Beltana" aground on Kangaroo Island in 1871, failed to report the damage, and  falsified the log. He later found work as mate of "Tongoy", whose captain was murdered at Semaphore. List of properties in CT2 8NF