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The wonderful Torrens

There never was a ship like the Torrens, Conrad,s ship they called her. tall and slender, with a long jib boom and beautiful bows, graced by the figurehead of a woman. It was said that this figurehead bore a striking resemblance to the daughter of Captain Henry Robert Angel , who came to Deptford in 1875 to launch the full rigged composite passenger clipper.

How that ship could sail! For 15 years nothing approached her average outward passage. She broke the record to Adelaide in 64 days, and made many more magnificent rund, principally through her ability to ghost through the water when other lay becalmed, A witch, they called her, but it was a term of endearment. Contad wrote of her; " The way that 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." Joseph Conrad joined the Torrens as second mate on November 2 1891. He left her two years later, but in that time had met many interesting passengers, including John Galsworthy , and had prepared the notes for some of his books.