Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Pamir and Passat - the end of an era . . .

It was slow work for this was their first real test. The old bark rose and fell, rolled, reeled, dipped and lunged on, oftentimes scooping solid seas between her bulwarks, the tons of water swishing and swirling about her decks. When the moment came to furl the topsail, all hands were called for the huge canvas was stiff as a board, sodden with salt spray. Shoulder to shoulder, the boys on the yardarms hauled, yanked and heaved in the bellying sail until their arms and fingers ached, but they finally had the gaskets fast around the sodden mass, their battle won.

As soon as the weather let up, sail was made again, and the Pamir plowed on across the Pacific. On July 11, with the royals set and by the light of a full moon, she rounded the Horn to enter the South Atlantic. Three and a half weeks later found the four-master crossing the Line. A hurricane around August 15 forced them them down to lower topsails and staysails. At the worst of the storm a series of mighty seas broke aboard, flooding the after quarters but doing little other damage. When the gale departed, it took the wind with it, leaving the Pamir to wallow in the calms. One day the liner Queen Mary, bound for New York, came close to dip her flag to them.

All of September passed with breezes light and willynilly. Finally, on October 1 she came to the Lizard light, and the next day, 127 days out, she arrived at Falmouth. It had been her longest and slowest passage on record. Back in 1933 she had taken only 92 days for the same course, and 96 days in 1939; her worst before had been 118 days in 1934.

Instead of discharging her cargo, the Pamir was chartered by the British Ministry of Food for use as a floating grain store. The tug Englishman towed her around Lands End to Penarth in Wales, and there she remained, still loaded to her marks.

The winner of this last grain race, and the only other competitor, was the four mast bark Passat, repeating her success of the previous year. She had sailed from Port Talbot, Wales, on December 18, 1948, and after a mediocre run of 101 days, arrived at Port Victoria in early March, anchoring not far from the Pamir. A large vessel of 3137 tons, the Passat was able to load some 4600 tons of wheat which she took at the rate of 80 shillings per ton - approximately $11.20 at the current exchange rate. (1949)

The two four-masters had planned to sail on the same tide, but just before getting under way, two of the Passat's crew jumped ship, so she was not able to leave until June 1. Captain Ivar Hagerstrand decided to take the Cape of Good Hope route, but after ten days of battling head winds and heavy seas, he brought his vessel about, and ran for the Horn.