#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 17 Land

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 17 Land

How happy must our emigrant ancestors have been to finally sight land.  I think particularly of those who came in the 19^th century, when shipboard conditions were dangerous and uncomfortable.  For the convicts, of course, it was even worse.

My 3 x great grandparents James and Elizabeth Golding embarked on this voyage as assisted immigrants with their four children, Susan, Eliza, Deborah and baby John.  They sailed from Plymouth,  England in November 1858 on the emigrant ship “Hornet”.  There were 438 passengers on board and most of them, like my ancestors, were travelling in the cheapest way possible, in steerage.

Steerage accommodation

Steerage class was the bottom of the ship, a space previously used for cargo.  It was crowded, dark and close to the water line.  Each family was granted a small space into which they had to find room for their bedding and cooking utensils and the few clothes they could keep with them.  All their other belongings were packed into trunks and stowed in the ship's hold. Depending on the ship, and the weather, passengers may have had access to their trunks only once or twice during a voyage. In bad conditions, many emigrants were stuck in damp, dirty clothes and bedding for weeks at a time.

Unfortunately for the Goldings, this was a rough trip, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported on 12 March 1859.

“The Hornet, arrived on the 3rd March from Plymouth, with 438 immigrants. She had a rather long passage, having been particularly unfortunate in meeting with foul winds and bad weather throughout. After clearing the Channel she had a succession of heavy gales, which lasted 22 days. She crossed the Equator on the 42nd day out, and since rounding the Cape of Good Hope has had nothing but light winds from N.E. to S.E.

There have been 5 deaths and 6 births on the passage.”

One of those deaths was Deborah Golding, who was 4 years old.  I’m still looking for Deborah’s death certificate, but there are any number of likely causes of death under these conditions, although the small number of deaths on the voyage would at least rule out an epidemic of something like measles.

The State Library of NSW describes life on board:

Steerage quarters had berths lining the walls and a long dining table in the middle. Passengers were organised into messes of eight to ten people prior to embarkation, and usually given berths close to friends or passengers from the same region. Emigrants cooked, ate, washed and cleaned within their mess and to a timetable specifying when each mess could do their chores.
The daily routine in steerage began at 6am with washing, dressing and tidying up before breakfast. Emigrants would then clear away and begin their chores: cleaning berths, scrubbing decks, and doing washing. Single men were expected to help out with extra tasks but steerage passengers with children could have very long days.

Emigrants had to be out of bed by 7am, with all the children washed and dressed before breakfast at 8 am and then sent off to school. At 9 am the decks were cleaned and groups assigned to clean areas of the ship that didn’t belong to a particular mess.  Dinner was at 1 pm, tea at 6 pm and lights out at 8 pm. Government regulations determined the daily routine on board British emigrant ships as well as many private ships leaving English ports. Steerage passengers were required to clean their own berths (as were some second and third class passengers) and this was how most emigrants started their day. Regulations also dictated the timing of religious services and weekly musters for inspections by the Surgeon Superintendent, wash days and daily cleaning of the ‘coppers’

There are some journals written by passengers as they made the voyage – all that I have found are written by those who are fortunate enough to have travelled in a cabin.  My guess is that most of those in steerage were illiterate, like my forebears. 

James and Eliza disembarked with their three surviving children on 3 March 1858.  At that time of the year, Sydney is warm and clear – it must have felt like heaven after 113 days on board the ship.  They left almost immediately for Northern NSW, where James had a position on the large station called “Tomki” near Casino where his brother in law, Sam Shepherd also worked.

Ships at the wharf at Benelong Point, c 1860 (this is where the Opera House now stands)

The Golding family spent the rest of their lives in the Northern rivers area.  In 1865, James and Eliza had another child, Emily, but Elizabeth died when she was only two years old.

James lived on until 1908, and I have a photo of him with one of his great granddaughters, my aunt Nellie.  The four Golding children produced a total of 44 grandchildren and many of their descendants are still living in the Northern rivers district.

Nellie White with her grandfather James Golding, about 1900