The Stag Diary - Passage to Colonial Adelaide 1850

By Doug Limbrick

British history, particularly British Imperial history, includes the movement of people from Britain to other parts of the world. For many this was a move as emigrants seeking a new life in another country.
From about 1830 there was considerable interest in emigration to the Australian colonies, supported for the first time by various British government and colonial programs of assisted passage.
The passage to the Australian colonies involved travelling half way around the world. For over ninety percent of emigrants this necessitated passage in a small wooden square-rigged sailing vessel beneath the deck as steerage class passengers, where conditions were rudimentary, crowded, noisy, smelly, damp and lacked privacy.
This book tells the story of a passage by some 260 emigrants to colonial South Australia in 1850 on board a square-rigged vessel called the Stag. It incorporates the transcribed diary of one of the steerage class passengers Francis C Taylor and gives a vivid insight into shipboard life on the long and difficult passage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Dec 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479757503

Doug Limbrick

Doug Limbrickis a keen runner who also has had cancer. Author of many journal articles on social policy issues and several books on nineteenth century Australian history, his experience in marathon running led him to write a comprehensive guide to running your first marathon. But writing his memoir—about being extremely fit and healthy with a cancer diagnoses—was a new challenge.

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Copyright © 2012 by Doug Limbrick. 515803

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-4797-5749-7

             Ebook         978-1-4797-5750-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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This book is

dedicated to Francis Taylor, and to my maternal great-grandparents Jeremiah and Ann Norton and the other two hundred and sixty passengers who undertook the some 13,000 nautical mile passage from London to Port Adelaide in 1850 on board the Stag seeking a better life in the colonies and also to the forty crew members who despite numerous challenges and many difficulties successfully brought the vessel safely to its destination.

Acknowledgements

A number of people provided invaluable assistance during the course of my researching and writing this book. I am particularly grateful for the national resource, which is available through the vast holdings of the National Library of Australia (NLA), Canberra. The considerable holdings on microfilm available as a consequence of the Australian Joint Copying Project were drawn upon. Original documents and old manuscripts were readily available through the various library-reading rooms. My thanks go to the staff of the NLA for their assistance and patience. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided by the South Australian Maritime Museum, the South Australian archives (Services SA) and the helpful assistance provided by the staff of the Mortlock Reading Room of the State Library of South Australia. My thanks also go to family and friends who showed interest in this project and offered encouragement and advice. Finally special thanks to Jeremy Limbrick for his assistance and advice with pictorial material, graphics and design work.

Note for readers:

Measures of distance, weight and type of currency have been maintained, as they were in nineteenth century Britain and the Australian colonies. Hence metric and decimal terms are not used. Thus to assist readers who may want to convert terms used in this book the following may be of use:

.1 mile is approximately equivalent to 1.6 kilometres;

.1 yard is approximately equivalent to 0.9 metres;

.1 foot is approximately equivalent to 0.3 metres;

.1 ton is approximately equivalent to 1.02 tonnes;

.1 ounce is approximately equivalent to 28.4 grams;

.1 gallon is approximately equivalent to 4.5 litres;

.70 degrees Fahrenheit is approximately equivalent to 21 degrees Celsius.

With regard to currency the terms used are pounds (£), shillings (s) and pence (d).

Preface

That the generation to come

might know them,

even the children which

should be born

- Psalm 78, Bible

As a long time reader of and researcher into the history of emigration from the United Kingdom to the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century I was very excited when I accidentally located a microfilm copy of a nineteenth century emigrants detailed account of a voyage in a small wooden vessel, which sailed to the colony of South Australia in 1850. At the time of discovery I was searching through large amounts of microfilm looking for personal experiences and stories to include in another publication, when my attention was captured by the name of a vessel which I was familiar with because it had carried my maternal great-grandparents to the colony of South Australia in 1850. My curiosity aroused I was quickly absorbed in the content of this microfilmed diary, which had been copied as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP). The diarist, Francis C Taylor, had been a passenger on the emigrant vessel Stag, which arrived at Port Adelaide on Tuesday 11 June 1850.

The more I read from the Taylor diary the more absorbed I became in his very detailed account of daily life on board a small square-rigged sailing ship during its some thirteen thousand mile journey to Australia in the mid eighteen hundreds. His account of the voyage provided considerable insight into the highs and lows, the dramas, the boredom, the fears, the sadness and the happiness and elation that occurred during those 111 days at sea. Taylor faithfully kept the diary each day even during a lengthy period when he was rather ill and unable to leave his bunk (…..very unwell this morning and am almost afraid I shall be a long time before I shall recover my usual health and strength, my appetite has failed me and I am very weak).

My interest in the diary was such that I spent a considerable period of time transcribing it from microfilm. Having completed that work over several months I then decided that this was an important historical record that should be shared as widely as possible. It was a personal history but clearly told a story that would correspond closely with the stories of many nineteenth century emigrants. I discovered the diary at a point in my research when I had already read about many voyages and about nineteenth century sailing and emigration, and I thus found that the experiences described in the Taylor diary were similar to many of the experiences of other nineteenth century emigrants. However, Taylor’s inclination to record detail made this account somewhat special.

Hence I feel that it is a significant document, not only because of the detailed account that it gives of the voyage, but also because it is one of a small number of surviving ship board diaries written by a steerage class passenger. According to Hassam, as a result of his research into emigrant diaries, first or cabin class passengers wrote the majority of shipboard diaries. We thus obtain through the eyes of diarist Francis Taylor a detailed steerage passenger view of life on board a nineteenth century emigrant ship (‘tween decks), which is particularly relevant given that the majority of emigrants travelled steerage class to the colonies. In light of the significance of this diary I have concluded this book with the full transcription of the Taylor diary.

I was also fortunate to have discovered and had access to the original retrospective journals (1841-1854) of seafarer Alexander Weynton held by the National Library of Australia. These old and very precious journals include Weynton’s comments about his three pre 1850 voyages on the Stag. Weynton was also an artist and his journals contain some special watercolour drawings of the Stag and other vessels. I felt that his watercolours and comments nicely complemented the detailed day-to-day reporting in the diary of Francis Taylor and thus I have attempted to bring them together within the one publication.

In order to assist the reader gain maximum benefit and enjoyment from the diary and journals I have written three chapters, which I particularly hope provides context to what follows in the Taylor diary. The first of these three chapters deals with sailing to the colonies as a nineteenth century emigrant. That chapter is intended to provide some insights into the voyage and the nineteenth century emigrant vessels. The second chapter provides the reader with information about the Stag, including some of the wonderful pictorial information obtained from the journals of Alexander Weynton. The third chapter looks at the arrival process at Port Adelaide and the colony of South Australia in 1850, in order to paint a picture of what would have confronted the Stag passengers on arrival in the colony. Hopefully the inclusion of these three chapters will not only aid readers to achieve a better appreciation of the events that occurred during the voyage described in the Taylor diary but will also be useful to those readers who are interested in a more general view of nineteenth century emigration to the colonies.

A final note regarding the process of transcribing the diary of Francis Taylor. In undertaking this work I have attempted to transcribe the words of the writer as accurately as possible, including keeping any unusual expressions, different spelling and punctuation, the use of capital letters, etc. The only exception to this is my failure to reproduce the long s, which looked like an f and was used for the first s when a double s appeared in a word. This form of writing appeared to be in standard usage up to the middle of the nineteenth century, but continued to be used beyond that point. They were used a number of times in the Taylor diary. My main difficulty in transcribing the diary related to the faint condition of the writing in the record of the early parts of the voyage. However, with some persistence and the help of others I am confident that my transcription is as accurate as possible and the meaning is true to that intended by the writer. In some places the writer omitted full stops and commas and in some places dashes and capital letters were used as punctuation. Where the lack of punctuation would lead to major difficulties in understanding the diary I have inserted a comma or full stop. There were a couple of instances when I could not be confident of a word and so I have placed those words in [square brackets]. On the whole my aim has been to reproduce what Francis Taylor wrote and leave the interpretation to the reader. I hope that readers get as much enjoyment from reading the diary as I did and thus wish you happy reading.

Doug Limbrick

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1   Sailing to the Colonies in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 2   The Stag

Chapter 3   Land Ho! The Stag Arrives - Colonial South Australia 1850

Chapter 4     Diary of Francis Taylor - the 1850 Stag Passage

Appendix A Passenger List: Stag 1850

Appendix B Glossary of Terms

Endnotes and References

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

1. Diagram of Ship and Barque.

2. Emigrants at Dinner -Typical scene of steerage class emigrants beneath decks (c 1844), Illustrated London News, 13 April 1844.

3. Montage of Life on Board Emigrant Ship. Illustrated New Zealand Herald 9 April 1875.

4. Emigrants on Deck. Illustrated London News 20 January 1849.

5. Map illustrating the two routes used to sail to the Australian colonies.

6. The Constance on her passage from Plymouth to Adelaide 1849 by T G Dutton.

7. Sailing in a big sea.

8. SS Great Britain Among Icebergs. Illustrated Sydney News 21 January 1871.

9. The Stag in a storm – watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

Chapter 2

10. Stag and an unidentified vessel - watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

11. Captain E Noakes HEICS – watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

12. The Stag at Port Phillip Heads – watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

13. The Stag and Lady Amhurst anchored in Chinese waters – watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

14. Cross Section of Square Rigged Vessel – by Jeremy Limbrick

15. The Stag under sail – watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

Chapter 3

16. Cape Willoughby, Kangaroo Island by J R Clarke 1857.

17. Port Adelaide – Sketch by S T Gill 1848.

18. Map of South Australian coast in vicinity of Adelaide, showing landmarks that were seen by emigrants on arrival.

19. Customs House Warf, Collectors Office. S T Gill 184?.

20. Port Adelaide 1848-49 (artist S T Gill).

21. Adelaide, Hindley Street from the corner of King William Street 1847 by S T Gill.

22. The Stag in big seas - watercolour by Alexander Weynton.

Chapter 1: Sailing to the Colonies in the Nineteenth Century

I did not dream the hour would come

When I should wing my way

Across the briny oceans foam

In distant lands to stay

I thought the cord could never break

Which me to Britain bound

That I should for dear England’s sake

Reject all other ground

Yet now the vessel swiftly glides

Upon the rolling main

Which bears me o’er the flowing tides,

And snaps that chord in twain.

Mary Thomas, Despair and Decision

Those people who emigrated to the Australian colonies from Britain during the nineteenth century had but one mode of travel to choose from and it necessitated a very long and difficult sea voyage. They came in various types of vessels but for a significant part of the century this involved for most emigrants a voyage in a square rigged sailing ship. According to Parsons the average measurement of vessels carrying migrants from Great Britain and Europe to South Australia in the first twenty four years of colonisation (i.e. from 1836) was about 450 tons, although some exceeded 1200 tons and some were as small as 100 tons or less. Although steamships had been in existence from the latter part of the eighteenth century they had little impact on the Australian passenger trade until almost 100 years later in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Square rigs allowed the fitting of many small sails to create a large total sail area to drive large vessels. The alternative to a square rig was the fore-and-aft rig, which involved the sails being attached along the same plane as the vessels fore and aft line (i.e. the line of the keel). Fore-and-aft rigged vessels were generally more manoeuvrable and efficient when working in changing winds close to a coast. However, long ocean voyages required a large sail area to take advantage of the prevailing winds and current patterns of the globe. This was for many years the domain of the square rigged vessel. On a square-rigged mast the sails had names, which indicated their vertical position on the mast. The lowest square sail was the course, the next sail up the mast was called the topsail, the next the topgallant sail. Some vessels shipped a fourth sail above the other three called the royal. These square rigged vessels varied in size from the small handy brigantines and brigs of a couple of hundred tons to the great full rigged ships and barques of over two thousand tons.

The early convict and emigrant ships coming to the Australian colonies were blunt box like wooden vessels. They were built with a flat bottom because of lack of docking facilities and hence the vessel could rest on the mud in tidal rivers and harbours. Despite advances in ship design during the nineteenth century these wooden sailing ships continued as regular passenger carriers until the 1860’s and beyond. The nature and standard of service these vessels offered at the beginning of the period was much the same as that offered at the end.

One writer commented that these wooden vessels tended to ride like a cork on the great rollers of the Southern Ocean on their way from Cape Town to Australia. They shipped little water and in very bad weather they could drift more or less bow (front) on to the wind for days on end in relative safety.

In the nineteenth century the word ‘ship’ was only used to refer to a sailing vessel that was square rigged on all masts