After they had been five days and nights adrift, the smoke of a steamer was sighted about sundown; then darkness set in. The provisions had become soaked in salt water but the shipwrecked crew had managed to keep a few rockets dry, and these were sent up one after the other in the hope of attracting the attention of the steamer. At last only one rocket remained, and after some discussion as to whether to risk it or keep it for a future occasion, it also was fired and was seen from the bridge of the approaching vessel. However, she showed no signs of having seen it in the way of an answering rocket or flare, so one can imagine the relief of the shipwrecked crew when her masthead and later her side lights were seen, steering end on for the boats. The steamer proved to be the _Fifeshire_, homeward bound from New Zealand, and she took the Corinth castaways right on to London.
A description of Walker’s iron barques will be found at the end of Part III.
Perhaps the most familiar ship to old City men was the little _Ethel_, which under the command of Captain A. Ross ran for years with the utmost regularity between London and Tasmania, and when in the Thames always moored at Hayes Wharf, London Bridge. She was a composite barque of 556 tons and was built in 1866 by Pile, of Sunderland, and owned by Fenwick & Co., of London.
A still smaller ship than the _Ethel_ in the Tasmanian trade was the smart little _Harriet McGregor_, which had the “round the world” race with _Berean_. A. McGregor who built her was also her owner.
She was built at Hobart in 1871, and measured:—
Registered tonnage 331 tons. Length 134.2 feet. Beam 27.6 „ Depth 15.9 „
This little ship for year after year did the following annual round with the regularity of a clock. On Christmas day she left Hobart for London, loaded with wool and sperm oil. She returned to Hobart from London with general cargo at 40s. and often more. Then she ran across to Mauritius from Hobart with coal, and returned with a cargo of sugar, in time to get away on her usual sailing day for London.
The Fremantle Barques “Charlotte Padbury” and “Helena Mena.”
In the early days the Fremantle wool trade, including that of the Ashburton River and Sharks Bay, was all carried in the holds of fast clipper barques, such as Walker’s _Westbury_, _Decapolis_ and _Corinth_, and well worthy to be ranked with these were the _Charlotte Padbury_ and _Helena Mena_, both of which were well known and much admired in the London River for many years.