Delving into personal memoirs is one of the delights of historical writing – albeit at the risk of disappearing into a black hole of time. There’s nothing quite like reading the words of someone who was present at the time, for the little details and voices that lend authenticity to a story.
Here are a few more snippets about the voyage from Britain to New Zealand, taken from the writings of real passengers.
For ‘The Widow’s Secret’, I made particular use of the published diary of Alfred Fell, an observant cabin passenger who gave a detailed account of all aspects of his voyage on the Lord Auckland in 1841. Fell clearly enjoyed the journey and made good use of his time. He was impressed by the food: “we had an excellent dinner of salmon, soup, roast goose, a saddle of mutton, a couple of fowls, with curry and a Westphalia ham, plum pudding and apple tarts, cheese and bottled water, champagne and sherry, with desert consisting of apples nuts to almonds raisins et cetera.” Not bad fare for a sailing ship!
Food became something of a fixation for some travellers, to the point that Neill Joyce chose the title ‘Plum Duff and Cake’ for his 1975 book, based on the journal of James Nichols in 1874. Like many young men, he showed a keen interest in his food and plum duff in particular.
For a women’s perspective, one of the sources I used was a collection of stories from four voyages, published as part of ‘The adventures of pioneer women in New Zealand’ by Sarah Ell (1992). Here are a few quotes from letters and diaries, reproduced from that book.
Charlotte Godley, 1850, cabin passenger:
- After six days they were “still not thirty miles from Plymouth, and the wretchedness of those days is not a thing to be spoken lightly of.”
- Of flying fish: “we had quantities flying about for the last three days and they are beautiful little creatures, but quite small, only about eight inches long.”
- “But the prettiest thing is to sit on the deck at night quite at the stern and watch the track of the vessel; last night it was like three wreaths of pale green smoke (one from each side and one from the rudder) started with showers of bright stars.”
- “We are not to consider it hot till the seams on the deck begin to melt. We wake every morning before six with the pump for washing the decks and then the gentlemen all go up on deck to have buckets of water thrown over them.”
- “The doctor is unsuccessful, as he gets very tipsy.”
Jane Findlayson, 1877, steerage passenger:
- Of the equatorial heat: “we wear nothing but our dress and shoes on our hard feet, some go without shoes, but that we can’t manage. There is a young Irish girl went wrong in her mind beside us, we did not get any sleep for four nights she talked on, so we complain to the doctor and she has tonight been taken to hospital.”
- Of crossing the Line: “About 3 o’clock the procession came on deck consisting of King Neptune, his wife, his doctor, clerk and barber as well as six black slaves following them. … he went onto the main deck and shaved all the new hands on board … After being shaved they were plunged into a big tank of water with the slaves were swimming about and ready to give them a proper dunking. It was two hours grand fun, and that did not finish the day, the singers’ names were taken down for a concert in the evening.”
- 25th November: “Snowing hard this morning.” (They had snow for several days.)
- “Another birth on board. … The doctor strictly forbids single girls from going near the married quarters, he is trying what he can to prevent measles spreading amongst us here, we have disinfecting powder all over the place, it is a disagreeable smell. … There is no doubt now but we will be quarantined.”
Rose Pascoe 