“Got up, after a very bad nights rest at 8. Did not get to sleep till 3.30am. Just above my head one of the boats is a little loose and keeps thumping like thunder about a foot above my head. We shall be very pleased when we get into the trade winds, as it is dreadful work night after night to be tossed about, while your pails are making music on the floor and then having to turn out at all hours to bale water out which is soaking everything it can reach. Preserved meat Breakfast & afterwards Arthur tried to catch some stormy petrels but did not succeed. Sea much calmer to-day & nearly everyone up.

Beautiful moonlight night & Arthur & I stopped on the poop till 12 playing at Whist & Cribbage.

Here is a riddle I heard to-day:   When is a ship like a scarf pin…   When it’s on the bosom of a swell”

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