16th October 1878 – 20th day

“Another beautiful day. We have now done about 1400 miles & are now off the coast of the Madiera’s.

Off the coast of Maderia on a world globe

Today we sighted a small schooner & early this morning we saw a large shark. Arthur tried his hand again, at fishing for the pilot fish, which always go in front of the sharks, but with his usual success. To-day both Arthur & I got our books chalked, which means standing grog all round, as we were on the sailors ground, viz: the fore part & the forecastle head. Our 1st class lunatic (as the sailors call him) made us all laugh tonight by telling us he wanted a brush to clean his brains out with. Bed at 11.”

Extract from A.Whelen’s travel diary sailing from England to Australia aboard the Hesperides in 1878

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a blog post you'd like to share? Simply tick the box :)