“Up at 7.30 after a fearful night’s rest & feel very seedy about the head. Fine morning & doing about 5 knots an hour only in the wrong direction. Arthur amused himself by turning his box out whilst I went through my stamps. Dinner 12.30 Salt Junk Biscuits Cheese Pickles & plum pudding. Fine breeze […]

“Up at 6 to see the sun-rise, splendid morning but a nasty long swell on. Stew for breakfast which was A1. Arthur tried his hand at fishing as we saw thousands of fish around us but he did not catch a single one. Today we are all feeling much better after our late sickness & […]

“Up at 6 feeling a bit better for a very bad night & managed to eat some beef & an egg for breakfast which fortunately was not wasted. Wind NW in the morning & making a little headway but it soon changed to NE & now we are not making any progress. Watched the sun […]

“Woke up feeling rather queer. Change of air & food has given all of us diarrhoea. Been sick nearly all day; with the exception of a mutton chop all has found its way to sea. Wind dead against us all day have therefore made no way at all.” 4th day sailing from England to Australia in […]

“After a good sleep in our not so spacious bedroom (12ft x 6ft) to hold by the bye (the guv’nor, Arthur & myself) we got up at 5.45 not to feed the fishes or to catch the worms, but to see us weigh the anchor before starting which we did at 6.20. We had 2 […]

“We started from the Blackwall pier (East India Docks) at 1.30pm & after a short farewell & a pleasant little trip we arrived at Gravesend at 3.45 where we stopped for the night. Arthur & I went on shore for a couple of hours to see his father off & to take our last glass […]