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"Pendragon Castle," afterwards the German "Lisbeth."

The third of the Workington sisters was the Pendragon Castle launched in
February, 1891, for J. Chambers & Co. of Liverpool. Her first captain was J.
D. Wood of Glengarry fame; on her maiden voyage she had three very hard case
officers who allowed no afternoon watch below and played the bucko with
endless hazing and consequent bloodshed, so that the maiden passage of 92
days from Liverpool to Calcutta with salt was by no means a pleasant one to
her crew, who were glad to be paid off in Calcutta. The treatment of all
hands was no better on the homeward passage. The ship left Calcutta for Hull
with a cargo of linseed on July 19, 1891, and came driving up the Humber in
a blizzard, 113 days out. This was during the night of October 9; the ship,
which was almost out of control, touched on Halle Sands, lost both anchors
and chains, and eventually was taken charge of by the Humber tugs, who
safely docked her the next day.

After discharging she was ordered round to Cardiff. Whilst towing round the
Pendragon Castle broke adrift from her tug and was obliged to run for the
Downs, where she collided with the American four-mast schooner Marie Otelle,
and this accident considerably delayed the commencement of her second
voyage. She left Cardiff on February 10, 1892, for Colombo with a cargo of
coal under the same master but with new officers. Her passage was one of the
best in her career. For 19 days she averaged 229 miles a day and her best 24
hours' run was 343 miles. She arrived at Colombo on April 23, only 42 days
from the Equator and 72 days from the Bristol Channel. At Colombo she
discharged her coal, took in ballast and sailed for Rangoon, where she
arrived only 99 days out from Cardiff. Her homeward passage was spoilt by
cholera. Some of her crew died in Rangoon of this scourge, and after leaving
for Liverpool on June 22, 1892, Captain Wood was compelled to put into St.
Helena for medical assistance. After a passage of continued head winds and
calms the ship arrived at Liverpool on November 2, 133 days out. Captain
Wood died soon after the ship's arrival home, and Captain Richardson took
charge of her on her third voyage when she again left Liverpool for Calcutta
loaded with salt. Her third outward passage was remarkable for light winds,
no sail having to be furled throughout the 156 days that she took between
Liverpool and Calcutta. On her homeward passage with linseed she arrived at
Amsterdam on September 28, 111 days out.

On her fourth voyage the Pendragon Castle arrived at Calcutta on March 3,
1894, 107 days out from Hamburg which she left on November 16. This is a
very good time for a full built ship. On her homeward passage in 1894 she
left Calcutta with the usual cargo of linseed on June 1, and arrived at
Hamburg on September 28, 119 days out, having beaten quite a fleet of
Calcutta wallahs, including her sister ship the Eusemere. She made one more
Hamburg and Calcutta voyage, and then the competition of steam drove her to
Newcastle, N.S.W., and the W.C.S.A.

She was then sold to H. H. Schmidt of Hamburg, who re-named her the Lisbeth,
under which name she continued to make fine passages until the autumn of
1927 when she was broken up on the Clyde.

Whilst under the German flag she was mostly in the nitrate trade. The
commanders of the German nitrate ships were all picked men, for they were
expected to race out and home, and many of them were superb seamen. The
following example of seamanship by the captain of the Lisbeth I have taken
the liberty of quoting from Rex Clements' Stately Southerner:-

Sometimes a clipper swooped in from the sea and down on her moorings
like a plundering Viking on a Saxon hamlet. Such a spectacular piece of
seamanship I once witnessed on the part of a four-masted barque in
Tocopilla.
Tocopilla Bay forms the segment of a circle, with a bluff headland at
its northern extremity and an ugly reef of rocks stretching out to seaward
from its southern end. The ships in port lay in a single tier, reaching from
close under the lee of the reef to within a quarter of a mile of the
headland, and at no great distance from the shore.
One afternoon we saw a barque not far out in the offing standing boldly
into the anchorage with every stitch of canvas set. She was heading straight
in for the line of shipping before the town and coming along grandly,
leaning steeply over, with a flashing bow-wave curling away on either side
of her. To an onlooker from the port, it appeared as though she were
determined to pile herself up.
On she came, with never a tack or sheet started. The men on the nearest
ship ran out, thinking there would be a collision. Still the barque came on,
with no sign of shortening sail. Only, as she approached, she was observed
to alter course slightly in order to head between the endmost vessel and the
headland. It was magnificent, or monstrous foolhardiness, just precisely
which was not apparent.
The stranger stood unwaveringly in till she was within a few hundred
yards of the nearest ship and not more than a cable's length from the
headland. Then we heard a whistle aboard her. Down went her helm
hard-a-port, topsail and t'gallant halliards whined in the sheaves, staysail
hanks tinkled swiftly down the stays, and the barque swept boldly down under
the stern of the anchored shipping. With lessening momentum she stood
straight down the narrow fairway between them and ihe shore, clewing up sail
in masterly fashion. A minute or two more, and she ported again. Then,
passing between the end ship and the southern reef, with her bows pointing
fair out to sea, and her men furling sail like heroes, she let go her anchor
and brought up, in the best berth in the harbour;
It was a superb piece of seamanship-as daring as it was well-timed. The
barque turned out to be a German vessel, the Lisbeth.

At the end of the war the Lisbeth was handed over to the French Government,
but was very soon bought back by the Germans. In 1924 she aroused great
interest in Liverpool where she arrived from Pensacola on August 7. The old
ship came up the Mersey channel with a fair wind on the quarter under all
sail, and was almost up to the Rock light before she took her tug; she was
watched by the shipping community with much admiration. On her next voyage
she went out to Adelaide in ballast in 86 days, and came home with grain,
arriving Falmouth-113 days out in June, 1925.

Her last voyage contained the following fine passages:-
Santos to Adelaide .. .. 47 days.
Astoria to Callao ... .. .. 64 "
Callao to Sydney .. .. .. 59 "
her last passage of all being from Sydney to Queenstown, March 8, to July 6,
1927-120 days.

She discharged her grain cargo at Limerick and was afterwards taken to the
Clyde to be broken up.