Benchmark: running bare, grt, st, each for at least 3 CPU seconds...
      bare:  3 wclk secs ( 3.02 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.02 CPU) @  4.63/s (n=14)
       grt:  4 wclk secs ( 3.15 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.15 CPU) @ 15.54/s (n=49)
        st:  3 wclk secs ( 3.13 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.13 CPU) @ 10.21/s (n=32)
       Rate bare   st  grt
bare 4.63/s   -- -55% -70%
st   10.2/s 120%   -- -34%
grt  15.5/s 235%  52%   --

##</code><code>##

        Rate   st bare  grt
st   18009/s   -- -21% -49%
bare 22661/s  26%   -- -36%
grt  35616/s  98%  57%   --

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::Wrap qw(wrap);

use Benchmark qw(cmpthese);

my @words = qw(
EMBOSOM EMBOWED EMBOWEL EMBOWER EMBRACE EMBROIL EMBROWN EMBRUED EMBRUES 
EMBRUTE EMBRYON EMBRYOS EMENDED EMENDER EMERALD EMERGED EMERGES EMERIES 
EMERITA EMERITI EMERODS EMEROID EMERSED EMETICS EMETINE EMETINS EMEUTES 
EMIGRES EMINENT EMIRATE EMITTED EMITTER EMODINS EMOTERS EMOTING EMOTION
EMOTIVE EMPALED EMPALER EMPALES EMPANEL EXFOLIATIONS EXHAUSTIVELY 
EXHAUSTIVITY EXHIBITIONER EXHILARATING EXHILARATION EXHILARATIVE 
EXHORTATIONS EXIGUOUSNESS EXOBIOLOGIES EXOBIOLOGIST 
EXONERATIONS EXONUCLEASES EXOPEPTIDASE EXOPHTHALMIC
);



my $test={
    st => sub {
         my @sorted =
            map { $_->[1] }
            sort { $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] || $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] }
            map { [ tr/eE/eE/, $_ ] } @words;
    },
    grt => sub {
        my @sorted =
            map { substr($_, 4) }
            sort
            map { pack("LA*", tr/eE/eE/, $_) } @words;
    },
    bare => sub {
        my @sorted = sort { ($a =~ tr/eE/eE/) <=> ($b =~ tr/eE/eE/) 
                            || $a cmp $b } @words;
    }
};


foreach my $t (keys %$test) {
	print "Test '$t'\n",wrap("\t","\t",join(", ",$test->{$t}->())),"\n";
}

@words=map { ( $_ x 100 ) x 100 } @words;
cmpthese(-3,$test);

##</code><code>##

This is perl, v5.6.1 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread