| Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision |
| roxburgh_castle_memoir [2020/03/26 14:23] – judith | roxburgh_castle_memoir [2026/05/10 13:10] (current) – judith |
|---|
| ====== 'Roxburgh Castle' memoir ====== | ====== 'Roxburgh Castle' memoir ====== |
| |
| TLM-P wrote his 'Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the Roxburgh Castle', c.1879((MLMSS6576, copied from Praed papers, QJO)) for his daughter Rosa Praed to use in her planned 'sketch of colonial life'. He wrote it, he explained, while suffering from lumbago (lower back pain) which left him unable to do physical work. He was relying on his memory of events over 40 years ago, so this evidence must be treated with caution. As well, as with most memoirs, he highlights the aspect of his youthful self he most admired and wished his daughter to appreciate. The anecdotes he chooses to tell his daughter reinforce the perception of a young man full of high spirits: his toasting the Catholic reformer Daniel O'Connor in response to an Orangeman's toast; shooting bottles then albatrosses; and defying Captain Cumberland by diving off the //Roxburgh Castle// to swim, disbelieving warnings of sharks until one was caught by the crew.\\ | TLM-P wrote his 'Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the Roxburgh Castle', c.1879((Praed notebook, Praed papers, Box 3/item 125, Unpaginated, QJO; copy in Sydney's Mitchell Library, MLMSS 6576)) for his daughter Rosa Praed to use in her planned 'sketch of colonial life'. He wrote it, he explained, while suffering from lumbago (lower back pain) which left him unable to do physical work. He was relying on his memory of events over 40 years ago, so this evidence must be treated with caution. As well, as with most memoirs, he highlights the aspect of his youthful self he most admired and wished his daughter to appreciate. The anecdotes he chooses to tell his daughter reinforce the perception of a young man full of high spirits: his toasting the Catholic reformer Daniel O'Connor in response to an Orangeman's toast; shooting bottles then albatrosses; and defying Captain Cumberland by diving off the //Roxburgh Castle// to swim, disbelieving warnings of sharks until one was caught by the crew.\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| TLM-P recalled that there were some 20 to 30 in the first class accommodation (cabin class); 'several' passengers in second class accommodation; and 'about 200 emigrants' jammed into the third class accommodation. They also picked up new passengers when stopped at Cape Town. While he deplored his father's financial recklessness and was aware his mother had scrimped to provide money for him, he takes it for granted that he sailed 'cabin' class. Class divisions were strong and he showed no interest in those who could not afford first class. Despite his disregard, the white population of NSW was so small that he would have encountered them in later life: emigrants like 21-year-old Jane McCormick who, a decade later, had married and, with her husband, ran a major store at Singleton in the Hunter Valley.((Catherine Bishop, //Minding her own Business. Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney//, Sydney: NewSouth, 2015, p.146.))\\ | TLM-P recalled that there were some 20 to 30 in the first class accommodation (cabin class); 'several' passengers in second class accommodation; and 'about 200 emigrants' jammed into the third class accommodation. They also picked up new passengers when stopped at Cape Town. While he deplored his father's financial recklessness and was aware his mother had scrimped to provide money for him, he takes it for granted that he sailed 'cabin' class. Class divisions were strong and he showed no interest in those who could not afford first class. Despite his disregard, the white population of NSW was so small that he would have encountered them in later life: emigrants like 21-year-old Jane McCormick who, a decade later, had married and, with her husband, ran a major store at Singleton in the Hunter Valley.((Catherine Bishop, //Minding her own Business. Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney//, Sydney: NewSouth, 2015, p.146.))\\ |