Bound for South Australia 1836

Employment Week 8

Overview

Between February and July 1836 nine ships left Britain bound for the newly created province of South Australia. On-board the ships were passengers who over many long months braved the perils of the ocean, including some of the most treacherous seas in the world to begin a new life on the other side of the world.

This resource uses the stories from these nine ships as recorded by the passengers and crew in their personal journals.

Contents

• Introduction• Journal entries• Inquiry Questions• Relevant images • Glossary of terms

Introduction

The time at which these ships set sail is at the end of a period known as the industrial revolution. The changes in agriculture, farming, mining, transportation and advances in technology had a big impact on the lives of people living in England during this time. Last week we started looking at the skills and trades of people who were onboard these first colonising vessels, but what was life like for these people before departing England? Where they from poor, working or upper class families? Why did they make the decision to leave England to start a new life in South Australia?

This week we read that two ‘fresh’ sailors and a cook joined the crew of the John Pirie. The passengers and crew onboard would each have had different experiences and stories to tell. How would a person’s past experiences influence their actions and impact on the journey to South Australia?

Captain Robert Morgan, on board the Duke of York wrote:

This 24 hours cloudy weather though plesent windENE increaseing employd putting down the saltprovisions we had on deck in the room of water wegot up we unbent the chain from the Anchor putthe cables below and cleaned down the decksLattd Obs 46.48 North Long 9.26 West…

Journal entries Saturday 16 April 1836

Saturday 16 April 1836

John Pirie journal writer, on board the John Pirie wrote:

The repairs of our Vessel being completed, and everything got on board, with two fresh Sailor’s, and a Cook,to fill the situations of those who decamp’d (but no Onein the room of Stephen Sessions), we weigh’d Anchor at10½, A,M, and proceeded to Sea once more, with the Windfrom S,S,W, which contd until 5, P,M when a fineBreeze sprang up from the Northward, and remain’d soall Night ________ In the Afternoon our Capt order’d theEwe to be kill’d, which I spoke of Yestdy, as it was inextreme Misery, and at 4 P,M, one of the Turkey’s,unfortunately flew overboard and was drown’d _____

Inquiry Questions

• What skills and experience would the new cook and sailors joining the ship have had?

• How did the industrial revolution impact on the lives of people in England in 1836?

• What conditions did the children of the working class endure in this era?

Images

Steam-Engine Manufactory and Iron Works, Bolton" engraved by Watkins after a picture by Harwood, published in Lancashire Illustrated, 1831 (dated 1829)ages

Glossary of Terms

weigh’d Anchor• When the crew weigh anchor they raise or lift it from the ocean floor so they can put the ship in

motion.Lattitude• Latitude is the distance of a point north or south of the equator as measured in degrees. The

poles are at 90 degrees north and south.Longitude• Longitude is the distance, measured in degrees, of the meridian on which a point lies to the

meridian of Greenwich. On the other side of the earth to Greenwich is a point with a longitude of both 180 degrees east and 180 degrees west.

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