_South Australian_ was occasionally seen in Melbourne, but the _City of Adelaide_ was always in the South Australian trade, and usually loaded wool at Port Augusta. Both ships were still running in the late eighties.
Messrs. Devitt & Moore always considered that the little _St. Vincent_, launched in 1865 by Pile, of Sunderland, was the fastest ship they ever owned. Her measurements were:—
Registered tonnage 892 tons. Length 190 feet. Breadth 35 „ Depth 18.9 „
She was also composite built, with a 68-ft. poop and 36-ft. foc’s’le. With hard driving skippers, like J. Bissit and J. Barrett, she had as bad a reputation amongst foremast hands as the Orient flyers in the matter of wetness. However, she was such a beautifully modelled ship that she came to no harm in spite of generally travelling through the water instead of over it. But no hard driven ship comes through the westerlies year after year without a scratch, and one occasionally comes across such entries as the following in her log books:—
27th October, 1878.—Struck by a heavy squall, sustained severe damage to spars, losing bowsprit, headgear, etc.
She was not often over the 80 days going out, and her times coming home would have been as good, if she had not come _via_ the Cape and St. Helena like most South Australian traders; nevertheless she was usually home in under 90 days. In spite of being hard driven for most of her life the _St. Vincent_ was still afloat in 1905 as a Norwegian barque under the name of _Axel_.
Messrs. Devitt & Moore owned two other well-known clippers, built of wood. These were _Pekina_, 770 tons, built by Smith, of Aberdeen, in 1865; _Hawkesbury_, 1120 tons, built by Pile, of Sunderland, in 1868.
The _Pekina_ was in the South Australian trade, but the _Hawkesbury_ always ran to Sydney. Though she had many fine passages to her credit, the _Hawkesbury’s_ chief claim to fame was her reputation for being the wettest ship in the wool trade. She was composite built, but the _Pekina_ was all wood.
Messrs. Devitt & Moore sold the _Pekina_ in 1880, but the _Hawkesbury_ was still in the Sydney trade in the late eighties.
Messrs. Devitt & Moore, as shipbrokers, had many fine ships figuring in their books, notably _Mermerus_ and _Thessalus_, and at odd times others of Carmichael’s fleet. They were also brokers for Mr. T. B. Walker’s speedy little barques in the Tasmanian and Brisbane trades. These sailed under the Devitt & Moore house-flag, and Mr. Walker occupied a room and his clerk a desk in their office.