_Loch Sunart_, the last three-master built for the Loch line, was launched in January, 1878. Her life was a very short one, as on her second passage out to Melbourne she was piled up on the Skulmartin Rock, 11th January, 1879.
_Loch Maree_ left Glasgow on 5th May, but was held up for four days in sight of Tory Island, first by calms and then strong S.W. winds. Between 21° S.—the limit of the S.E. trades—and the Cape meridian, she had ten days of strong N.W. winds, during which she logged over 300 miles a day for several days in succession.
_Ben Cruachan_ had such favourable winds in the Channel that she carried the Channel pilot on to Madeira, where she landed him on 25th April. She made very steady running down south, for her best day’s work was only 296 miles. Her sister ship, _Ben Voirlich_, on the contrary, made a run of 350 miles on 26th July in 35° 37′ S., 22° 10′ W., though she took 83 days from Achill Head to Hobson’s Bay.
_Pericles_, with 489 emigrants on board, made a good start in her career, like all Thompson’s ships. Between the 23rd and 24th November in 44° S., she ran 354 miles before what Captain Largie called a hurricane, so it is not surprising that _Brilliant_ failed to catch her in spite of an average of 261 miles a day for 22 days between the Cape and Otway. _Brilliant_, however, instead of emigrants, had 4000 tons of general cargo on board.
_Patriarch_, who very rarely suffered damage in bad weather, took a very heavy sea over her poop during a W.N.W. gale on the 2nd September in 100° E., and lost 9 feet of her taffrail and three stanchions over the side. This sea would not have been a pleasant one for _Loch Vennachar_ or _Sir Walter Raleigh_, both of which had their decks lumbered up with horse boxes full of draught stock.
_Samuel Plimsoll_ as usual made some good running down south, her best week’s work being 2050 miles.
_Thermopylae_ was hard chased by _Cutty Sark_, in spite of a 17-day run from the Lizard to the equator. It is a pity the two ships did run their easting down on the same parallel, as they must have been neck and neck down south, but _Cutty Sark_ kept in 46° S., whilst _Thermopylae_ did not go higher than 44° 30′ S. Both ships by the way were forced by bad weather to put back to the Downs on their first attempts to get down Channel.[C]