Diary kept by Thomas Waters aboard the MELBOURNE
Author
Thomas Fletcher Waters
(1855 - 1930s)
Date1877
Object number00045643
NameDiary
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall (Closed): 195 x 162 x 13 mm
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Richard Waters
DescriptionShipboard diary written by Thomas Fletcher Waters covering his journey from Gravesend to Melbourne aboard the sailing ship MELBOURNE in 1877. Daily entries and anecdotes include fish and bird sightings, methods of catching and trapping birds at sea, deck games such as quoits and charades, weather encountered, ships sighted, illnesses on board (rheumatic fever, consumption, DTs) and even death and a funeral at sea. On his arrival in Australia Thomas stopped writing in diary form but continued to write about his travels.HistoryThomas Fletcher Waters was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1855. His parents were wealthy, but his father, James, died in 1860. He and his brother were effectively then part of his mother, Elizabeth Fletcher's extensive family. He never needed to earn a living and was able to take part in many sports as well as bringing up a family of eight children, the first three of whom died in infancy. His eldest son's second marriage was to an Australian, and he retired to Melbourne after a career in Hong Kong. His eldest grandaughter married an Australian motor cycle ace, Arthur Simcock.
Tom was a competitive boxer, raced trotting horses, coursed hare at Liverpool's Waterloo Club, was a leading shot at the Manchester Gun Club and a founder member of the Royal Lytham and St.Anne's championship golf course. His journey to Australia in 1877 was undertaken to help cure his consumption 'by distancing him from smoke and poor weather'. It evidently succeeded, although he broke a leg falling off his horse at a sheep station in the Yarra Valley. In 1898 he went on a safari from Johannesberg with the famous Frederick Courteney Selous, just a year before the South African War.
He married Margaret Ellen Rylance in 1885 Tom died in the early thirties , but Margaret lived on in the Isle of Man until 1947. They had moved there in 1905 after the Financial crash of that year.SignificanceWaters' diary provides a detailed picture of the experience of travelling by sailing ship in the late 19th century, and of the impressions received by new arrivals of Australian cities, towns and regions.
