IMMIGRANT SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 101, 26 October 1925, Page 3

IMMIGRANT SHIPS

TALES OF THE EARLY. DAYS

TO NEW. ZEALAND '.'UNDER

SAIL 3'-

HARDSHIPS AND PERILS ENCOUNTERED.

Numerous stories of a thrilling nature are told in Mr. H. Brett's new book, "White Wings," which deals at length with the early immigrant days of New- Zealand, when voyages were often protracted, and many perils were met by the way. Voyages from London to Wellington and Auckland are described in detail, and readers may gain some little idea of the enormous undertaking it was for a man and his wife to transfer their often large family to the distant shores of the new land. The Melbourne "Age," in a recent issue, published the following abbreviation of the book, which has to be read to be really appreciated.

The generations which came to Australia and New Zealand "under sail" are passing. Those who can recall experiences on the famous immigrant ships of fifty to seventy years ago are getting fewer and fewer. Soon there will be only the written word to remind Australians and New Zealanders of the hardships suffered and the perils encountered, in the long voyages which used to occupy anything from 70 to 140 days. Immigrants who come to Australia to-day in a luxurious Bay liner, watched over bywelfare officers, having officials to help them away and officials to receive them, sometimes complain when they reach Melbourne that, in a passage occupying a.little over a month, they have had a rough spin. What would they have said—those who now complain—if they had taken passage with the Star of India, or any of the other sailing vessels that were used as immigrant ships fifty years and more ago—ships that took, as a rule, about 100 days to reach an Australian port, ships without fresh food from the day of leaving England until the day of reaching Australia, where the human freight was herded like sheep, fending for themselves? Doubtless they would have stood the trial just as well as did the pioneers—the war proved that a somewhat maligned younger generation could ring true when the supreme test came—but, looking back, and making comparisons with modern modes of travelling, the conditions appear appalling. Many of the older pioneers, .both of Australia and New Zealand, and their descendants will'be interested in stor- ■ ies of experiences told in Mr. H. Brett's new book, "White Wings," which, although dealing particularly with the New Zealand sailing trade, apply equally to vessels coming on to Australian ports at the same period. The voyage made by the Star of India m 1874 is typical of many. , This vessel, of 1045 tons, did her 1874 trip from London to Wellington, New Zealand, in 102 .days, and one of the passengers gives some glimpses of the conditions: A MIXED LOT. "We had about 300 passengers aboard. They were a- mixed lot—English, Irish, Scots, Swedish, Danes, Germans, and a few Russians and Poles. I well remember the rough weather we ran into in the Bay of Biscay, and the dismay it spread among the passengers. There was a lot of seasickness, of course, and the. emigrants were very downhearted. You would hear the women blaming the husbands, and the men blaming the wives for deciding to come on such a dangerous undertaking. The people from the Emerald Isle woulfi be vigorously telling their beads, while* the cockneys were liberally swearing at each other and everybody else for being such fools as to leave good old London. But this only lasted a short while, and then all hands settled down to shipboard life. The women would be sitting round sewing and singing, and the mens' favourite pastime was to play pitch penny on the deck. During the trip one of the male emigrants seized his child and jumped overboard in a fit of dementia, both being drowned. For 102 days there was no sight of land."

Some facts which apply generally to immigrant ships are given relating to the Stracathro, a monster iron clipper oi 2000 tons, which made special trips tc New Zealand.- The saloon fare was £42, second saloon £25, and 1 steerage £15 to £18. Second-class passengers were required to provide themselves with "bedding, knives and forks, table and tea spoons, one or two deep metal plates and dishes, a hook teapot, cups and saucers or tin drinking vessels, a water can, washing utensils, towels, etc." The clipper earned a crew of 28.

LONDON TO At about the same time the Algoa Bay made a passage with emigrants from London .to Wellington, which occupied 105 days. One of the passengers, named Kelly, who kept a diary of the voyage, speaks of "the courage it required to make a married man with a family of five sell out and sail 12,000 miles to the other side of the world." It was the sort of courage tliat both Dominions have reason to be thankful for, and which they hope has' been transmitted to the. stock born and bred in the new i land. The family was housed in a sail-room in the after part of the ship—a place about Bft square, with two beds—to serve as kitchen, bedroom, dining-room, and sitting-room for seven souls. "It seemed rather contracted," remarks the diarist. "In fine weather it was all right, but in heavy weather we might just as well have been in an open boat." The travellers could not eat the ship biscuit owing to its "flinty hardness," and tho salt beef and pork wet* "villainously bad." The preserved potatoes were "revolting to the palate." Most of the meat and potatoes went to the sailors, ■who complained of shortcommons and welcomed the stuff. The food that could bo eaten was 41b of oatmeal, 41b of preserved beef, 21b rice, 61b of peas, and 81b of flour per' week for a family of seven. The ration worked out at about soz of solid food per day for each individual. The fresh water ran out, and the Kellys had one pint served daily to the seven of them for drinking anil washing. These rations and conditions are not quoted as exceptional, or unusually poor. The diarist puts it on record that conditions were much (lie same on all ships.

When accidents hnppc-ned people frequently lost, their papers, references, and personal introductions. One hkipper made Iho deficiency good iii. the case of a domestic, servant with the somewhat ambiguous note: "This is to certify that Bridget Murphy had a very good, character when she left Duncdin, but she lost it on board."

Tho record trip to Auckland is credited to tho Loch Awe, which, with a large number of immigrants, competed the voyage from London, in 76 .dayjs (3 hours'; Tliis was an ex>

traordinary performance, and roads impressive when it is mentioned that at some stages the vessel averaged 308 miles a day. But the passengers did not seem to appreciate it. The captain of tho Loch Awe was a regular old "sea dog," and the author records that when an opportunity occurred to crack on ho would "batten down" his live stock, as ho called his passengers, and drive the vessel through tho water like a railway train. He was bent upon making a record passage, and one of the consequences was that when he arrived at Auckland he had only two boats left. The exceptional nature of the performance is shown by tho fact that two other vessels which loft London at about tho same timo reached Auckland sis weeks after the Loch Awo arrived. AN APPALLING DISASTEE. Tho most appalling of the disasters recorded in connection with the emigrant sailing services was that which befell the Cospatrick when bound from London to Auckland in 1874. The ship took fire a* sea, and of 473 souls on board only three survived. The panic-stricken passengers overcrowded the boats and swamped them, so that only two boats got away, hundreds perishing in, the flames. As a story of concentrated misery this statement of the chief mate, in whose boat there were 41, must be unique: "Thirst began to tell severely on all of us. Bentley, who was steering, fell overboard, and was drowned. Three men became mad that day, and died. We threw the bodies overboard. Two days later four men died. On the next day we were reduced to eight, and three of them were out of their minds. Early next morning a boat passed close to us. She was not more than 50 yards away. She was a foreigner. We hailed, but got no answer. One more died that day. Two days later it was squally, but we never caught a drop of water, although wo tried to. Two more died that day. We threw one overboard but we were ■ too weak to lift the other. Th.6re were five of us left —two able seamen, one ordinary, one passenger, and- myself. The passenger was out of his mind. All drank sea water. We were dozing, when the madman bit my foot. I woke up, and we then saw a ship bearing down upon us. It proved to be the British Sceptre." So the five were Bayed, but two died on the rescuing ship. The second boat was never heard of again.

These and numerous other stories, mostly sombre, reveal the extent and peril of the task of transplanting the pioneers of the. of Australasia from the' old land to the new. They are worthy of the record, and' the reading, for the inspiration they [jive.