Stirrings of shipboard romance on journey to a new life

Recovered from his seasickness, Jonathan Moscrop's thoughts turn to the people he has left at home in Darlington, and we get the first indication that one of the reasons that he is emigrating to New Zealand with the Matthews family is that he is rather fond of one of the Matthews girls.

Saturday, February 8, 1879

Very blustery today. Not much comfort on deck, but one is forced to try and stop up because down in the steerage there is such a bad smell from the ropes and rails which are stored close to where we sleep. It is a nasty place all together, but we must say "Nil Desperandum", which is a good motto.

There have been porpoises near the vessel today and while we were watching them Emma Matthews lost her hat overboard, which made her look down her nose for a short time.

We had a tragedy on board this afternoon. While a lot of us were standing at the lee side of the ship, one of the men deliberately stuck a knife through the neck of a sheep and as a natural consequence all the blood ran out and the sheep died and become mutton; about the same time the cook slew two fowls so that there was a regular slaughter of the innocents.

Sunday, February 9

A regular dirty day. The sea is very rough and breaking over the deck now and again. Sarah M(atthews) and I were sitting together (that's for breaking the rules) a few minutes, where we thought we were secure, but we got a souser which felt rather damp. We are getting along very slowly on account of head winds, which have prevailed for two or three days, so that we have had to tack a good deal. We have not had any religious service aboard today, but I had a quiet time to myself thinking of Nestfield (on Albert Hill) and the kind friends there, who I doubt not would think of us, who are far away.

Monday, February 10

I believe we have not been going in the right direction during the night and the wind is still blowing against us and the water is very high, looking like hill sides.

Tuesday, February 11

The wind is fair for us this morning, so that we are on our right course, but the water rough and breaking on board to the great discomfort to those who get caught in the splash.

I was sitting quite happy at the lee side of the ship when over came a solid lump of water which caught a lot of us and gave us a good drenching which we took with becoming gravity (being thankful for all good things).

I was on the forecastle tonight and it is a fine sight to look at the luminous flashes on the water, close to the bow of the ship.

* More next week