Diary of Mr H Knight

Gravesend, England to Sydney Australia

November 1852 to April 24, 1853

Copy of the diary of Mr H KNIGHT referring to the voyage to Australia from England by sailing ship, November 21, 1852 to April 24, 1853.

Mr Eric Rannard, shire clerk, Bland Shire Council, was a descendant of Mr Knight.

Mr Rannard’s widow, Mrs Gloria Rannard, gave the original copy to Bland District Historical Society, West Wyalong.

Left by the ship Jays from Gravesend on Sunday morning, 21st November 1852. Left Gravesend with a as far as till next morning.

NOVEMBER 22: Set sail, had fine breeze.

NOVEMBER 23: Still sea. Still at night. Nearly all the emigrants seasick. the pans falling about. Women frightened.

NOVEMBER 24: Wife, George and Henry sick. Two youngest children better.

NOVEMBER 26: Rough wind and sea. Could not have table down to have our breakfast on it, was so rough. Wife and George very weak. Cold. Each of us got a cold. Got my wife up on deck. She felt a little better. Heavy sea. Ship rocked very much. Infant died. Mother confined. Saw a boat, bottom upwards. Great from filth.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28: Rough sea, wind contrary. Wife still poorly.

NOVEMBER 29: Still heavy sea, wind and hailstorm. Child buried. Wife a little better.

NOVEMBER 30: Wind fair. Not strong enough, sailing only one knot. In four storms. Sickness abating all over the ship. Wife sat on deck. She ate a little. Little girl’s bowels related. Beautiful day. Sailing about 7 knots in the evening.

DECEMBER 1: Very little wind. Wet in the morning. Fine in the afternoon. Many of the emigrants with heavy colds. Wife and little girl in bed today. Much filth to put up with. Making gruel for wife and little for this of day. No time for reading; time filled waiting on my family. Beautiful breeze in the

DECEMBER 2: Fine seeing 9 vessels in sight. A little rain, 2 p.m. wife a little better . Girl a little better. Poorly myself with cold. Emigrants fishing, but catch nothing.

DECEMBER 3: Had service. Wet morning. Sea running very high. Children well. Wife little sick. Heavy cold on self caused me to feel very poorly. Enjoyed my dinner very much - pressed meat and potatoes and plum(b) pudding.

DECEMBER 6: Fine dry morning. Very healthy. Wind contrary. Great confusion getting up the boxes for the emigrants to get clean clothing. George had a narrow escape from having his leg broken. Two boxes fell on him.

DECEMBER 7: Wind at her side. Several children ill. My cold a little better. Children very tolerable.

DECEMBER 8: Rough sea. Wind foul. Making but little progress. Several of the emigrants hurt with the things fall against them. Children scalded with tea. Another child died at 10 p.m.

DECEMBER 9: Child died. Rough sea, head wind. Poorly myself. Bowels relaxed. Much filth to endure. Another child died this afternoon.

DECEMBER 10: Dreadful rough. Myself and little girl poorly. Saw a schooner.

DECEMBER 11: Very rough. Myself and little girl poorly.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12: Beautiful day. Myself and little girl poorly. George made me some gruel and brought it up on deck for me.

DECEMBER 13: Fair wind. 10 knots. Myself and little girl poorly. George made me some gruel today. Sorry it is the last of my arrowroot, to have nothing allowed from the surgery. Do not know what would have become of us by this time if I had not brought a little arrowroot and tapioca with me. the allowance of food on such as we is not for us.

DECEMBER 14: Head winds. Began to watch for the time on board. Am better myself today. Made a good dinner. Little girl getting She cannot eat enough of the food to keep up her strength. A child died.

DECEMBER 15: Rough sea. Two children died in the evening, one of them from having been scalded.

DECEMBER 16: Fine dry morning. Rough sea. Head wind. Three children put into the deep. Two of the fathers were there to witness the scene and one little brother. One father affected, the other not. Only 1000 miles from London today. Little girl poorly. Cannot eat the food.

DECEMBER 17: Fine morning. South wind. Going very much out of our trail. Put my clothes out to dry that my wife had washed. Little girl still poorly, from the same cause as before. There is not food that she can eat. None of my children get enough to eat.

DECEMBER 18: Child died. Three children committed to the deep. Fine day. Head wind. Heavy sea. Sailing very much out of our course. Charles very poorly today. Complains of a pain in his side.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19: Rough night last night. Head wind. Child died. Charles and Susan poorly.

DECEMBER 20: Calm, close, thick rain. Charles and Susan very poorly.

DECEMBER 21: Fine morning. Tolerable wind. Charles and Susan very poorly, in fact, dwindling.

DECEMBER 22: Fair wind. Child committed to the deep. Another died. Charles and Susan still ill.

DECEMBER 23: A woman fainted while watching her dying baby. One child committed to the deep. Charles and Susan still the same.

DECEMBER 24: Complete calm. Water is still as in a pond. Charles and Susan still ill. Charles expressed to me that he was sorry he left Penshurst, as there were plenty of nice things to eat there. "Here there is nothing I can eat". Poor little fellow. He could take but little now if he had it. Dear child, he is getting very weak, and a trouble to speak. I was obliged to go to a private place in the ship to give vent to my feelings. Seeing to that I was deceived by the Commissioners as to nourishment for children. Henry very poorly today. Bowels relaxed.

DECEMBER 25: Christmas Day. Henry, Charles and Susan all ill. Charles very ill and weak, a trouble to speak. Took Charles up on deck in my arms, but he was too weak to stay. Emigrants were reading, some their Bibles and at cards. Little girl fast dwindling.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26: Fine day, head wind. One child died. This makes 15 children dead. Henry and Susan very ill. Charles getting exceedingly weak. My wife daily asking the doctor for some nourishment, wine, etc., but nothing can she get for either of them. Little girl fast dwindling.

DECEMBER 27: Fine day. Head wind. Sailing better than usual. Saw Port (Funcho), Madetta. Two children died. Charles and wife better today. Henry poorly. Susan dwindling. Conversed with a Dutch vessel bound for Madrid.

DECEMBER 28: Fine day. 6 knots. Henry still very poorly, Susan still the same. Charles a little better, poor little fellow. He says nothing and can take no nourishment. He said to me, "Father, it would have been much better for us not to leave Penshurst. We used to get nice things there to eat". George begged three potatoes for him and roasted them, which he ate. How hard to hear my children ask for nourishment and have nothing for them, that they can take. I have not one single drop of anything allowed. Poor little fellow, he is daily sinking for the want of a little nourishment, and the little girl too.

DECEMBER 29: Charles a little better. Henry still very poorly. Susan daily starving. A storm at 7 p.m. It changed very favourably. Some of the emigrants becoming very lousy. 12 knots after the storm.

DECEMBER 30: Fine wind. 12 knots. My children much the same.

DECEMBER 31: Fair wind. 12 knots. Considered to be in the trading winds. Henry, Charles and Susan are all dwindling fast.

JANUARY 1, 1853: Fine today, fair wind, children not better.

JANUARY 2: Easterly wind. My children much the same. Some of the emigrants say flying fish.

JANUARY 3: Fine wind. 13½ knots. Moved today. Emigrants weight of butter. My children the same.

JANUARY 4: Fine day. 10½ knots. Woman died. One child died. Charles better. Henry and Susan worse.

JANUARY 5: Charles a little better. Henry and Susan still very ill. Both still under the doctor’s hands, but no nourishment for either of my children yet. A child died.

JANUARY 6: Warm day. Great Bustle getting up boxes. 8 knots. Henry and Susan very ill. Bowels relaxed and no nourishment.

JANUARY 7: Fine day, but very hot. Had tea on deck at 4 o’clock p.m. 2 knots. Children a trifle better. Great confusion getting up the boxes.

JANUARY 8: Very hot. Lightning and thunder at night. Captain had every porthole and skylight closed. Children a little better.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 9: Very hot and clam. I felt very poorly myself. This morning went up on deck and had some coffee and I felt better. My children are getting better, thank God. One child died.

JANUARY 10: Calm and hot. Saw two sharks. Nearly caught one. Henry and Susan poorly again today.

JANUARY 11: A man fell into the hold of the ship with his baby. Henry and Susan very poorly.

JANUARY 12: Fine day. Not so hot. Sailing about half a knot. Henry and Susan still very poorly. They are dwindling. One child died this morning.

JANUARY 13: Very hot. Henry and Susan much the same.............

or calm. Self very poorly. My head aches. Susan dwindling. Henry very ill. George and Charles going on right, except short of food that is fit to eat. In fact, Susan is starving.

JANUARY 15: Fine day. Susan worse than ever, actually starving. Got a small piece of mutton for Susan and a little porter. She ate a little mutton bread and drank a little porter. Henry much the same.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16: Fine day. Three knots hour. Susan worse. Very feverish, vomiting very much. Henry’s bowels very much relaxed. No nourishment.

JANUARY 17: Fine day. 3 knots only. Head wind. Henry and Susan very poorly. No better.

JANUARY 18: Wet day. Head wind. About 4 knots. Susan starving. Henry a little better.

JANUARY 19: Fine day. Susan starving. Henry a little better. Another child died today from starvation. Its month had strove hard for it, but it died today, after lingering a very long time in this state. It is a perfect skeleton. The captain allows the children that are weakest a few small potatoes. Susan had five and cried most bitterly for more.

JANUARY 20: Wet day. Henry better. Susan weaker. She ate a piece of bread for her dinner and a piece for her tea. She ate also five small potatoes for her dinner and drank a little thin arrowroot.

JANUARY 21: Fine day, head wind. Henry a little better. Susan very ill. Five small potatoes and a little wine for her dinner. allowed her today. She is excessively weak and cannot balance her head.

JANUARY 22: Fine day. Head wind. Henry is a little better and Susan a trifle better. The little wine had done her good. She ate four small potatoes and drank her wine.

JANUARY 23: Fine day. Wind contrary. Henry and Susan a little better. The wine is doing her good.

JANUARY 24: Fine day. 8 knots. Fell in with a German vessel, the captain of which was a schoolmate of our captain. Henry and Susan continue a little better. Susan had her wine and five small potatoes today. The captains paid each other a visit in their respective vessels. Our captain and the doctor dined with the other captain and he came and took tea with our cabin passengers.

JANUARY 25: Fine day. 11 knots. Henry much better. Susan still better. I now have hopes of her recovery. The wine, potatoes and now and then a piece of bread we get for her is getting her strength up a little. Passed a homeward bound vessel.

JANUARY 26: Henry and Susan better. The weather rather cooler.

JANUARY 27: Fine day. 7 knots. All well except Susan and she gains a little strength each day.

JANUARY 28: Both children still better.

JANUARY 29: Fine day. 10 knots. Henry well. Susan better than she was.

JANUARY 30: Fine day. knots. Susan not so well today.

JANUARY 31: 8 knots. Susan a little better than yesterday.

FEBRUARY 1: Fine day. 9 knots. Henry rather poorly. Susan very poorly. She is still but a perfect skeleton. She takes so little.

FEBRUARY 2: Fine day. 8 knots. Very hot. Henry worse. Susan about the same as yesterday.

FEBRUARY 3: Fine day. Very hot. 9 knots. Henry very ill. Susan a trifle better. A vertical sun.

FEBRUARY 4: Fine day. Very hot. 8 knots. Henry still very poorly. Looking worse than ever. Susan a little better.

FEBRUARY 5: Fine day. Very hot. Calm. Henry very ill. Could not but take very little. Betwixt 8 and 9 o’clock Henry went downstairs, took a counterpane with him that he had been lying on all day. Previous to this he had been to the closet but once all day. As soon as he got down to our berth he started to the closet. I followed after him. Was in the closet with him. We talked together a good bit. I then went up on the upper deck same time Henry went down. I stayed a short time up on deck because my wife was washing the children and she could do better with the little girl when I was out of sight as she used to cry after me. Meantime, Henry had gone to the closet again and, for the last time, he was heard to groan, but no one, it appears, knew what is was or who it was. He had fastened himself in the closet with the hasp, as was the way of most of the emigrants, and therefore, could not be got at under some 15 or 20 minutes. No one has suspected a death had taken place until the door was opened. So it was. Poor fellow, he was quite dead, sitting on the seat. And perhaps my friends can be better judges what my feelings were than I can express. I took George to see him after he had been carried into the hospital, which was the place where all the dead were taken. Poor fellow, he wept over him most bitterly. Nor was he the only one that wept, for none of us expected all this.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6: Fine day. Calm. Very hot. Funeral service was read by the school master at a little past 2 o’clock, p.m. when his poor body was committed to the deep. It was very much felt all over the ship.

FEBRUARY 7: Fine day. 2 knots. Susan very ill. Vomiting very much.

FEBRUARY 8: 4 knots. Susan a trifle better. Put on a today.

FEBRUARY 9: Fair wind. Beer today..............................sick.

FEBRUARY 10: Fine day. rough night. Susan a little better.

FEBRUARY 11: 11 knots. Susan much the same Wet day.

FEBRUARY 12: Fine breeze. Very dry. Much cooler. Susan better. She had a good dinner. George’s vomiting is better today. Sailing 11 knots.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13: Fine day. Much cooler. Susan not so well. George rather poorly.

FEBRUARY 14: Fine day. 9 knots. Susan about as yesterday. George a little better. Wife poorly.

FEBRUARY 15: Fine day. Susan not so well. Her wine is taken off today. The doctor tells me there is no more. George a little better. Wife poorly.

FEBRUARY 16: Fair wind. 11 knots. Susan not so well. She is going back again. George better. Wife poorly.

FEBRUARY 17: Fine day. 10 knots. Susan is dwindling fast again since she had had no wine. Her hands and face are swelling.

FEBRUARY 18: Fine. Cold wind. 8 knots. Susan not so well. Still swelling about the face and hands. George poorly with his bowels. Many children starving.

FEBRUARY 19: Fine day. Calm. Susan still worse today. George poorly.

FEBRUARY 20: Dead calm. Susan not so well. She had a little brandy. George better. Child died last night.

FEBRUARY 21: Dead calm. Very warm. Susan more swollen today, and vomiting. Charles quite healthy.

FEBRUARY 22: Fine day. Sailing a little in the morning, calm in the day. Susan not better. Cannot get the doctor to attend to her. It is also the case with many others that are sick. Child found dead in the berth this morning. Has had bowel disease a long time.

FEBRUARY 23: Fine day. About 8 knots. Susan a little better. A neighbour gave her some brandy in addition to her allowance. She seems a little stronger today. She is still swollen very much. She is eating break and pork, onion and a little broth. Oh, how hard to see her dwindling for the want of what I was told by the Commissioners we should have.

FEBRUARY 24: Misty at intervals. Great talk of being near the Cape. 12 knots. Susan still very ill. George poorly with his bowels. He, like many others, cannot get food enough of such as he can eat. Sailors up on deck, looking for land. Susan very much swollen from excessive weakness.

FEBRUARY 25: Fine morning, saw land ¼ past 6 a.m. It was the Rocky Mountains. 8 knots. About 2 o’clock we sailed into the bay. Saw a vessel of emigrants going out that had put in for something fresh. As we were sailing into the harbour a woman died. The poor husband, who is left with two small children, is in great distress. I wished I had never came on board this vessel, to see my children starve. We case at about half past

The Portmaster came to us and asked if we had any sick and if we had any deaths. At the same time we had 35. "What", said the Portmaster, "30 dead. I never had a ship call from England with so many deaths in my life and you be on your oath. You have had so many deaths?" "Yes", replied the doctor. "have you some fever or smallpox aboard?" "No" replied the doctor. "What have they died of then?" said the Portmaster. "Bowel disease" said the doctor, instead of speaking the truth; instead of saying they had died for the want of nourishment, for such was the fact I would be on my oath - no better than starvation. Susan much the same. I think she cannot live. She is far too weak, I am afraid, to recover.

FEBRUARY 26: We were obliged to weigh anchor, as the Portmaster considered we lay very unsafe where we were. We heard nothing that passed betwixt the Portmaster and Captain. Susan very ill. (Bumb) boats brought out bread, fruits, etc. to sell.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27: Nothing particular today. Susan no better. Fresh provisions allowed today, but only half the profert allowance. The emigrants wish to go ashore but the captain denies us this privilege. Mr Elated, servant of one of the Commissioners, came on board and said we might go ashore. That all others that wished to do so...

FEBRUARY 28: Portmaster came on board. Myself and Mr Pool told him the biscuits were bad. He inspected them. We told him the children had died of starvation and we begged that he would intercede for us; that if we were not treated differently we should lose all our children before we reached Sydney. He promised he would acquaint a Mr Rivers, whose duty it was to investigate all such cases. In the afternoon, both the Portmaster and Mr Rivers came on board and went all round to every berth. We made our complaints, which consisted of inattention of the doctor to the sick, want of medical comforts, incivility of the doctor to the emigrants in general; of the captain for issuing bad biscuits from the first week we put out to sea, for short weight of meat and butter, for issuing raw coffee. Susan much the same.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1: The emigrants desire the captain to let me go on shore with him to see the Commissioners, to ascertain from them whether it was the captain one was allowed to go on as they did not believe his . Told them he did not dare to allow them to go ashore, but allowed me to go with him. In the afternoon Mr Rivers and two doctors went on board to investigate the complaint. I happened to be with Mr Elation, Mr Rivers’ servant at the time they were ready to start and they went on board without me, and I could not get another boat to go after them to give my statement. Mr Rivers told me after they had come back from the ship he was sorry I was not there to give my statement to the doctors. He (Mr Rivers) said many of them stood back like fools, because there were two or three gentlemen before them; that if I had been there to give my statement and pressed my case that the doctor would have been left at the Cape, and that the captain would have been fined, but the captain pleaded ignorance and the doctor promised to pay better attention. The doctors told me my child was too far gone to recover. At the same time the doctors could not forbear shedding tears. Susan takes nothing but a few grapes. Mr Rivers told me to come the next day at the same time the captain did to the office of the Civil Engineers and he would tell me the time of sailing.

MARCH 2: I saw Mr Rivers with the captain and Mr Rivers told the captain in my presence that he could not hinder the emigrants coming on shore and that it was much better for them to come; that it might be the means of doing them good. Susan much the same, except weaker. She gets weaker every day.

MARCH 3: Emigrants much agitated from not being allowed to go ashore. Susan weaker.

MARCH 4: Susan is altered this morning. Feet not so much swollen, not able to take anything beside wine and fruit.

MARCH 5: Susan is altered very much this morning, for the worse. She was very quiet last night. No hopes of her today. Immediately after team time she was taken worse. My wife and I sat up with her all night, expecting every minute to be the last. At midnight a child died.

SUNDAY, MARCH 6: Weighed anchor. About 9 o’clock my dear little girl breathed her last. We sailed out into the bay, and we had there a dead calm. At half past ten p.m. they committed my child to the deep. I was in bed, the captain having promised me in the morning to wait till Monday morning. A wind blew up and they were obliged to be taking sounds every few minutes. Fortunately, a fair wind occurred around midnight and took us out of the bay.

MARCH 7: Fine day. Head wind. Wife very poorly.

MARCH 8: Fine day. About 6 knots. Wife Mr Pools A child died.

MARCH 9: 12 knots. Wife very poorly.

MARCH 10: Rough last night. Wife and George sick from the motion. 12 knots.

MARCH 11: Fine day. 12 knots. Wife and George sick from the motion.

MARCH 12: Fine day. About 6 knots. Wife poorly. Mr. Agur taken into hospital. This is the man that asked the doctor for a little porter three days before Henry died. The reply was "I will see you damned first". This poor man is one of the most respectable men we have on board. Has a wife pregnant and two little children. I hope when the Commissioners send out another ship with emigrants they will send out a proper portion of nourishment and a proper superintendent - one that has humanity about him. These expressions are hurtful to the feelings, especially to the mothers who are weeping over their dying children, for such is the case on board this vessel.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13: Emigrants suffering from not being able to bake a little pastry at the galley. The captain would not allow coals, a little wood that does not yield sufficient heat. Wife poorly.

MARCH 14: A fine day. Doing but little. A young women died. Wife poorly.

MARCH 15: Fine day. Wife poorly.

MARCH 16: About 10 knots. Mr (Vickers?) died. Wife poorly.

MARCH 17: Doing 10 knots.

MARCH 18: Still Cold. Wife under the doctor. 10 knots. Caught an albatross.

MARCH 19: Very cold, but fine. Wife much the same. Mrs died this morning, about 9 o’clock.

MARCH 20: Committed Mrs (Phillips?) body to the deep at about 4 a.m. 6 knots.

MARCH 21: Good Wife very weak.

MARCH 22: Sunny. 10 knots. Wife the same. No nourishment allowed her yet.

MARCH 23: Sunny and cold. Head wind. No nourishment yet for my wife.

MARCH 24: Damp and cold. Going out of our course. Head wind. Wife very weak.

MARCH 25: Head wind. Many large birds to be seen today, larger than a goose. Gave wife some brandy in some gruel.

MARCH 26: Damp day. wind. 10 knots. Wife had bad night. Pinching pains in the bowels. Doctor has not attended her, according to his promise at the Cape.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27: Fine day. 10 knots. Wife still very weak.

MARCH 28: Damp and cold. Wife much the same as yesterday. In the evening she was in great pain.

MARCH 29: Fair wind. Very cold. Feels like an easterly wind at home. 8 knots. Wife a little easier today. No nourishment for her yet, besides what I bought at the Cape.

MARCH 30: Fine day. Very cold. Head wind. 10 knots. Wife worse, bowels very relaxed. A child died from croup.

MARCH 31: Great confusion getting to the boxes. 11 knots. Wife rather today.

APRIL 1: Fine day. Fair wind. 10 knots. Wife rather easier today. Still confined to bed.

APRIL 2: Very rough day. Heavy sea. Still breeze. 13 knots. Wife sick from motion of ship.

APRIL 3: Fine day. Rough sea, 11 knots. Young woman died this morning at 2 a.m. No one knows anything about her. She was confined a few days ago. She admitted she had left home without her friends knowing she was pregnant. Wife rather sick today from motion of ship. She had a little brandy.

APRIL 4: Fine day. Cold. 10 knots. Wife a little better.

APRIL 5: Fine day. 5 knots. Wife got up today for about 6 hours.

APRIL 6: Cold, hailstorm. 11 knots. Wife worse today. Neither has she had any brandy or any other nourishment.

APRIL 7: Fine, but bitter cold. Head wind. Wife very poorly. Child died today. Two people with severe falls. Many of the children have severe colds on the chest. Poor things, they have an awkward time now.

APRIL 8: Dreadful rough in the night. This is the first time my wife expressed fear. She thought the ship struck against a rock, but it was a tremendous sea came against the side of the ship. Wife about the same. Doctor had a fall.

APRIL 9: Fine day. Very rough till 6 o’clock p.m. We were drifting all this time. Wife about the same. Doctor not up. Self very weak, and what is worse, my stock of provisions that I had purchased at the Cape is nearly exhausted. I am afraid my two other children will want.

SUNDAY, APRIL 10: Hailstorm. Heavy sea, 11 knots. Wife about the same. Ship rolling very much.

APRIL 11: Fine day. 11 knots. Wife very poorly. Out of raisins today.

APRIL 12: Fine day. Wife much the same. Still confined to bed. Captain wanted to put the emigrants on short allowance today, telling them there was but enough flour for 8 days. They wished me to go back to the captain so I proposed the flour be served out as usual, cautioning parents to save a pick for their children.

APRIL 13: Wife about the same. She would, I believe, have been dead had it not been for the flour, wine, beer, brandy and biscuits laid in at the Cape. My two children well, but hungry.

APRIL 14: 8 knots. Wife about the same. Flour today for two day only. We had butter today instead of suet. This is satisfactory.

APRIL 15: Fine day. 9 knots. Wife no better, very weak. I have felt very weak this last 10 days.

APRIL 16: Sailing well till about 3 o’clock p.m. Many of them have not flour served out to them today. I have none myself. I am very weak. The emigrants agreed unanimously that as they were short of food, to demand of the captain exactly where we were. Accordingly, it was carried out, and we found that we were at the entrance of Bass Straits.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17: Fine day, but calm. Got up this morning at 5 o’clock to see the lighthouse.

APRIL 18: Side wind. Doing but little. Saw Port Philip. Holding up to wind as it is not fair. Wife the same. Still in bed. Weak and poorly myself.

APRIL 19: Side wind. We proceeded gently. Saw land. Holding to wind all night till 4 o’clock tomorrow morning.

APRIL 20: Foggy. Cannot proceed because we cannot see the rocks which very About 10 minutes before noon the sun broke through and the captain was able to take his degree. About 2 o’clock, a wind sprung up. We glided on past the rocks. In my very soul, I believe, and I and many others thank God for this, for it seems quite a work of Providence to take us out of this perilous condition.

APRIL 21: Wind still fair. Passed Cape Howe at the rate of 10 knots. Much talk about the Promised Land. Wife and self much the same. Children right, except George being hungry. Lucky for my wife and two children that I laid in what I did at the Cape of Good Hope.

APRIL 22: Fine day. 5 knots. We expect to be at Sydney tomorrow. I managed to get my wife on deck for a short time, but it was too much for her. Captain told us if the wind continues the we should be in port tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock.

APRIL 23: Rather dull. Anxious to see land about 11 o’clock but little wind. Cannot sail this morning. Breeze got up a little after dinner. I am very weak. I never was so weak in all my life. Wife very weak. George very hungry. Charles right. About 11 o’clock p.m. we almost made Sydney Heads but the breeze dropped and stopped us. Nearly all the men were up on deck. There were, however, a few too weak to get up and we put a rocket and the blow for signals for the pilot, but no answer.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24: half past 8 a.m. The pilot, with his made his appearance. They questions the emigrants and of deaths. The doctor told them 50. They were astonished. The wind proved fair and we sailed into harbour nicely. this was the most handsome sight in nature I ever saw. The ks and the evergreens on every side was an end to the anxieties of the voyage.

The day after we got into the harbour the poor man Agur died. The man that asked the doctor on the second of February for a little porter and was denied as mentioned. A useful man lost for the want of common nourishment. He was a carpenter by trade and, I believe, a first-rate tradesman, from the apparatuses he had made, leaving a wife pregnant and two little children to mourn the loss of their starved father.

These are a few of the horrors of Government Emigration.

H KNIGHT, Gardener to Wm. Pritchard, esq. Liverpool, Cumberland, N.S.Wales.

P.S. We are comfortable in our situation, enjoying good health though my wife is not so strong as she was when we left England. George is going next Monday to a general store in Liverpool for 12 months trial at the rate of 9/- per week, board and lodging. It is a very comfortable situation and if he makes it I am thinking of apprenticing him. At any rate, 12 months will not hurt him. It will keep up his education, for one thing. Hoping you are well, I remain, your humble and H.K.

P.S. I will write again shortly. Our strawberries are just beginning to ripen and the summer just commencing.

P.S. We have seen Mrs Frost and husband and child. Mrs Frost was formerly nursemaid to Mrs Woodgate, Swayland, Penshurst. They are doing exceedingly well, they tell us.

12th of October, 1853.

REFERENCE: MITCHELL ARCHIVES, N.S.W. J. Leonarder, Merryland.

___________________________________________________________________________

JAVA: 968 Tons. Master: G. Christiansen.

Port of Registry; German port.

Ports Via: Good Hope. Cargo: Merchandise (crew 44) Passengers.

Health Note: There have been 37 deaths, 41 children, chiefly from diarrhoea. 1 boy 14 years. 8 women. No contagious diseases.

No sickness except chronic disease.

NOTES:

The above is a copy, as close as I can interpret it of "Health Officer’s Report for the Arrivals of Port of Sydney".

Notation on George’s name in pencil "Stepson of Mary Knight".

Remarks made by Henry Knight on above page:

"Complains that they had not been supplied food for his children".

George was his father’s child, not Mary’s. Further proof the native and country of George and father are the same. It would be reasonable to assume the family lived in Penhurst, Kent, as Charles was born there, although he was on board ship sometime before the rest of the family. Why, I cannot say.

Sickness on board was caused by a severe outbreak of Gastroenteritis, and the wrong food for the sick.

Kindly supplied by Kim Mettam, a descendant of "Java" passengers. Kim can be contacted on kilch@cygnius.uwa.edu.au