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| tlm-p_initial_decades_in_australia [2022/07/14 21:17] – [Sydney in 1839, 1840] judith | tlm-p_initial_decades_in_australia [2023/01/04 11:22] (current) – [TLM-P: initial decades in Australia] judith |
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| The voyage got off to a bad start as the weather in the channel was so bad that, after a fortnight, the ship made an unscheduled stop at Portsmouth. Clarke stated that the bad weather was caused by one of the worst hurricanes on record to hit England.((Elena Grainger, //The remarkable Reverend Clarke: the life and times of the father of Australian geology//, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, p.59.)) TLM-P claimed he had had bad voyages while in the navy without ever being seasick, but this short trip was the one he vividly recalled some 40 years later, as 'misery'.((TLM-P, Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the 'Roxburgh Castle' [c.1879], MLMSS6576 (copied from Praed papers, Oxley Library.)) The upside was that his family lived nearby so, quite unexpectedly, he was able to see them again. The //Roxburgh Castle// finally called into Plymouth to collect more passengers then left England on 22 January 1839.\\ | The voyage got off to a bad start as the weather in the channel was so bad that, after a fortnight, the ship made an unscheduled stop at Portsmouth. Clarke stated that the bad weather was caused by one of the worst hurricanes on record to hit England.((Elena Grainger, //The remarkable Reverend Clarke: the life and times of the father of Australian geology//, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, p.59.)) TLM-P claimed he had had bad voyages while in the navy without ever being seasick, but this short trip was the one he vividly recalled some 40 years later, as 'misery'.((TLM-P, Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the 'Roxburgh Castle' [c.1879], MLMSS6576 (copied from Praed papers, Oxley Library.)) The upside was that his family lived nearby so, quite unexpectedly, he was able to see them again. The //Roxburgh Castle// finally called into Plymouth to collect more passengers then left England on 22 January 1839.\\ |
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| Sailing to Australia was a perilous undertaking due to the danger of shipwreck (the //Roxburgh Castle// was lost at sea two years later) and disease. The ship's records show that 10 children and 5 adults died on the voyage. TLM-P believed they died of typhoid fever though the medical officer, in deciding against the need for quarantine when they arrived in Sydney, indicated that he believed it was not typhoid or any other infectious disease. Voyages to Australia were also lengthy: it was over five months before the //Roxburgh Castle// entered the heads of Sydney Harbour on 26 May 1839.((TLM-P, Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the 'Roxburgh Castle' [c.1879], MLMSS6576 (copied from Praed papers, Oxley Library.))\\ | Sailing to Australia was a perilous undertaking due to the danger of shipwreck (the //Roxburgh Castle// was lost at sea two years later) and disease. Both dangers were very real on TLM-P's voyage. As the ship was nearing the entry to Bass Strait, he and other men were asked to stay dressed as the captain was not sure of his location. The many memorials to shipwrecks around King Island indicate that it was a common problem. Disease was also a real threat, with 10 children and 5 adults dying on the voyage. TLM-P believed they died of typhoid fever though the medical officer, in deciding against the need for quarantine when they arrived in Sydney, indicated that he believed it was not typhoid or any other infectious disease. Voyages to Australia were also lengthy: it was over five months before the //Roxburgh Castle// entered the heads of Sydney Harbour on 26 May 1839.((TLM-P, Draft memoirs of a voyage from London to Sydney on the 'Roxburgh Castle' [c.1879], MLMSS6576 (copied from Praed papers, Oxley Library.))\\ |
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| **For more on this voyage, click [['Roxburgh Castle' memoir]].**\\ | **For more on this voyage, click [['Roxburgh Castle' memoir]].**\\ |