A Brief History of the ‘Loch Torridon’

The Ship

The Loch Torridon was built in Glasgow in 1881 by Barclay, Curle & Co. for the Glasgow Shipping Company to use in the jute trade out of India.

She was a four masted iron barque: length 281.8 ft, beam 41.7 ft, draft 23.6 ft tonnage 2081 GRT
Her first voyage was to Melbourne, Australia where she loaded horses for Calcutta, this being a roaring trade at the time. On the return trip to the UK Capt Pinder, the helmsman, the sailmaker and a boy were swept overboard due to an error by the Captain during a storm off the Cape of Good Hope, on the 9th Oct 1882. The Mate, who avoided being swept off the deck when his foot was caught in rope, took the ship home.

For the next 26yrs or more Capt. Robert Pattman commanded her, circumnavigating the globe 25 times without a hitch, including being one of only 3 out of 10 ships to survive a hurricane off the cape of Good Hope on 22nd May 1888. He left her when he could no longer find the high quality crew he insisted on.

During Capt. Pattman’s time on the poop deck, the Loch Torridon carried all manner of goods and became known as a ‘Clipper Ship’, setting fast times and occasional records, including Newcastle to San Fransisco, Newcastle to Valparaiso and on one occasion reaching London with the first wool clip of the year after being the last ship to leave Sydney

In June 1903, the Loch Torridon achieved a record time across the Pacific. The newspaper San Francisco Call reported: "From Newcastle to San Francisco the big ship swept her way in forty-five days . . . She crossed the Pacific in almost steamship time, and her appearance off the port sent every mariner along the beach into a reminiscent trance, which gave birth to old stories of the days when it took nerve to be a sailorman."

In December 1914 after having been sold to a consortium in Nystad, Finland, for FIM 130.000, she was en-route from Fredrickstad in Norway to Geelong, (near Melbourne) with a cargo of 98,140 standards of timber when she was dis-masted in a mid Atlantic storm. After drifting for a month towards Ireland, her crew, (including the ship’s terrier) were taken off by the SS. Orduna of Liverpool in January 1915 and the cargo was set alight to scuttle her.
Some accounts leave her to sink at this point, (52N, 12W), while others say she was torpedoed in the approaches to the English Channel. Perhaps she drifted, on fire, to the south of Ireland and was sunk as a shipping hazard.

This photograph of her was purportedly taken from the SS. Orduna. A ship’s boat can be seen just forward of the remnants of the foremast, apparently on it’s way to the steamer.

The Name
Loch Torridon is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. The word torridon means ‘place of transference’ and in this case denotes a place where cargo and passengers may have been transferred from sea going vessels to land and thence to a nearby land-locked loch for on shipment.
The name was chosen in line with the other vessels of the GS Coy. that came to be known as the ‘Loch Line’

The Loch Line
The Glasgow Shipping Company, (based in Glasgow), became known as the ‘Loch Line’ eventually owning and operating 24 ships, all named after Scottish lochs. These vessels were apparently all painted alike; black and white topsides with fake gun ports painted on the white strip and gray below the waterline, a common practice of the day.
All but six of the ships came to grief in a variety of ways, including war casualties, fire and some now famous wrecks. The story of the wreck of the Loch Ard on the ’Shipwreck Coast’ of Victoria is well know in Australia. This widespread knowledge is a result of the reporting of the only two survivors; a young crew member and the girl he saved when they were washed ashore on the morning following the sinking. (The popularly anticipated romance between the two never eventuated.)

Associated People

The Hovland Model
The model in the photograph was made by the late Alf Hovland of Norway after he sailed ‘before the mast’ on the Loch Torridon in the early 20th century. It is believed this model was built in Dunedin, New Zealand where he settled down and it was accompanied by a large, leather-bound scrap book with photos and postcards collected from around the world during his voyages. This unfortunately disappeared some time in the 1970s.

Interesting features of the model include inaccuracies that a member of the crew would be expected to know, such as the fact that the 3 tallest masts were identically rigged, allowing the interchange of sails between them. The model has an extra yard and sail on the centre mast.
The spelling of the name on the bows is also incorrect.As with the ship itself, the model has accumulated it’s own story of possession and travel. Amongst other things it was lost and spent 23 years in ‘temporary’ storage, (where the running rigging was cut by inquisitive children), before being recovered and transported to Australia where it currently remains awaiting restoration.

The Geelong Diorama
The Geelong Maritime museum has on display, a diorama including a half model of the Loch Torridon that visited the port for 24 days in 1913 to unload 1643t timber and 148t scrap iron and to load 2970t of bagged wheat. Geelong was also the intended destination on her final voyage.
Interestingly this model also has errors in the sail plan, having six sails and yards on each of the square-rigged masts, also labelled as being 287.4ft in length and 42.6ft beam and of 1904 tons displacement.

Museum Model
(Location unknown)

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