“Up at 7 for a bath. Another calm today for a change. Joey has been doing some washing this morning again.

Little Dux is laid up with the yellow jaundice which is anything but nice. She has to lay in bed a good bit & as it is rather sultry in as well as outside you can imagine how jolly it is for her. In a very few days we shall be under the sun & then we can expect it hot. Today they opened another tank of water, the remainder of the other being more the colour of an ordinary flowerpot than anything else. Joey has found that one of the men in the forecastle (working as a common sailor although having a certificate for a 2^nd mate) is the brother of one of the young fellows at Tarns where he used to be. His name is Gold.”

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