Emigrant ship’s doctor

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 16

Emigrant ship’s doctor

Dr Gundry’s Diary. The Nag’s Head Press, Christchurch, 1982, 100 pp. $14.95. Beautifully produced, with type assembled by hand, the limited editions from The Nag’s Head Press are charming curiosities among books published in New Zealand. “Dr .Gundry’s Diary” is also a diverting historical document. The good doctor was surgeon on the emigrant ship Steadfast which sailed to Lyttelton in 1851. This volume records his life on the voyage to New Zealand; a second volume is promised, continuing the diary through the doctor’s experiences in practice in Cashel Street in the tiny village of Christchurch. The “Diary” is based on the original which is in the Canterbury Museum. The Steadfast, of 535 tons, carried 135 passengers. Her : superintendent doctor, aged 35, was accompanied by his wife, his brother, and his brother’s wife, who seems to have caused a good deal of mischief by regaling other passengers with family tattle. The voyage was probably fairly typical of those that brought thousands of immigrants to New Zealand, but it was far from uneventful and the doctor appears to have filled a variety of roles, from priest, to dentist, to private detective. Much trouble flowed from the chaplain on board, a Mr Hodgkinson, who fancied himself an object of ridicule from the passengers, and finally brought Dr Grundry to the diary entry: “The Chaplain is very perverse today—this evening particularly. He wished this morning to be thrown overboard.” The doctor was obliged to take the frequent religious services while the chaplain was confined

under the watchful care of relays of passengers. The doctor himself was frequently poorly and spent the first week out from London confined to his bunk with seasickness. Helped by the ship’s captain, the doctor had the job of maintaining morale, and social decorum, among the passengers. “It was reported to me that one of the sailors was seen last evening in too close intimacy with a married woman on board. On investigating the matter no witnesses could be produced.” Two young migrants wanted to be married. The chaplain was in no state to perform the ceremony. The doctor decided to read the banns. He commented: “It will have the effect of keeping the lovers quiet, for three weeks at least, for if they are married on board I know not where to stow them away for the—the—consummation.” The doctor’s first operation, after a week at sea, was to cut out a fishhook caught in the lower lip of a steerage passenger. He attempted to extract a tooth for a Mr Stone and “failed after three slips.” However, he delivered a baby with success, and helped a collection among the passengers that raised 32/6 for mother and child. He remarked while the ship was still in the English channel that two irish stowaways had been found on board. “The chief mate threw them with a float overboard, allowing them 5 mins to say their prayers.” Later in his voyage the doctor took to writing songs about the passengers, some of them included in his diary. Of such stuff were made the beginnings of life in a new country. The second volume of the diary will be awaited with interest.—Literary Editor.