THEN AND NOW.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17161, 23 July 1927, Page 11

THEN AND NOW.

TRAVELLING IN ISG7. Yesterday was the GOtli anniversary of the arrival in New Zealand of Mr Isaac Coates, of Wellington Street, Hamilton, ho having reached Lytlclton in Ihe Lancashire Witch on July 21, J 807. Describing the voyage out, Mr Coales says:— "The Lancashire Witch had been in her early days classed At at Lloyd's, but (!:;;!. had' expired, and lo set sufficiently classed again she had been renovated and another deck built on her. which made her a. fair brute for rolling. 1 had secured a second-class berth in the four-cabin house on deck, and on account of the height Ihe rolling was something awful, to make matters worse, my berth was athwart-s-hip, and while lying in the bunk I often had my head very much lower than my feet, ami every time the ship was put about I had lo change, that.is, put my head where my feet had been. We had some very rough weather, and the very (list night the main topsail halyard gave way, and down came the yard. One, thing I feel certain of, and that is, had the ship put into Plymouth or any other port, 1 would have left the ship. We had not been long on board before it leaked out that there was going to be a shortage of water for the passengers, and one pint per day per adult was all that could be allowed. All the water was condensed, and the engineer was expected to condense sufficient during the daytime, but it was soon found that the condenser would not run both night and day to make sufficient to give one pint per day each. So a sailor was chosen to to be second engineer. His name was Fred. Hunt, and a fine, good man he was. A few years afterwards he and his family came to New, Zealand and settled in Hamilton, and Mr Hunt, became one of the staff of the WSikat.o Times for many years. The food during the voyage was almost uneatable. The pork and the beef, which were packed in casks, had the appearance of having been years in the casks. Of vegetables we had none/' The biscuits had to be split to get the wcavils out of them. The flour was bad and smclled strong. The only thing we could eat was oatmeal and pea soup. There were over 100 emigrants on board. I paid £3O for my berth."