Account of a voyage from Melbourne to London on the AGINCOURT
Date1861
Object number00018508
NameDiary
MediumCloth, card, ink, ruled paper
DimensionsOverall: 165 x 105 mm, 5 mm, 0.005 kg
Copyright© unknown author
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection
Collections
DescriptionA handwritten account by an unidentified woman cabin passenger on board the 950 ton, wooden sailing ship AGINCOURT whilst on a voyage from Melbourne to London. The account provides information on a man over board, the death and burial of a fellow passenger, the attempts of the AGINCOURT'S Captain to procure extra food and the rationing of water on board.
HistoryThe account describes, with deep feeling, the marital breakup and subsequent custody battle over the children of a fellow passenger, along with her thoughts on the "monotonous and off repeated service of the Church of England, a part of which is chanted by the audience" and the behaviour of other passengers "some of our first class passengers are frivolous and volatile kind of people, of loose moral character, whose loud laughter often annoys us"
The AGINCOURT left Melbourne on 30 March 1861 bound for England via The Auckland Islands and Cape Horn under the command of Captain George Tickell. On board were 21 first class passengers and 191 second and third class.
From looking at the passenger list for this voyage, it is possible that the writer was either a Mrs Mollis or Mrs Heby. This supposition is based on the age of the women and their husbands and that they were unaccompanied by children.
There is no 'Madame Cotton' on the passenger list, although she is mentioned in the manuscript as being the "only female companionable for me".
Mr RH Jesper and the Rev Darling are listed and are noted as being friendly to the writer and her husband.
SignificancePassage accounts by women are particularly and this account is most unusual in that it describes a voyage to England after a four year residence in Victoria.
Written by a deeply spiritual woman passenger, the manuscript provides a very personal account of her thoughts upon leaving Australia and returning home with her husband and father.
