Journal of a voyage on board the Arachne from London to Sydney, N.S.W., Wellington, N.Z., and Manila (sic) back to Sydney and en route to England, 1842-1843

MLMSS 8819

fonds

1842-1843

999640

0.052 metres of textual material (1 box)

The Arachne was a 319 ton barque captained by George Pearce in the 1840s. Alexander Dow travelled on the Arachne with his friend Mr McDonell in 1842-1843, he kept this journal as a record of his voyage.

The journal contains 197 hand-written pages covering the period, 15 April 1842 to 23 July 1843. It provides detailed daily entries describing the voyages from London to Sydney and Wellington N.Z, returning to Sydney via Guam and Manila. Dow is a good observer and the journal provides an interesting record of the ship’s stays in Sydney, Newcastle, Wellington, Guam and Manila and includes details of stock, stores, passengers and personal impressions of each township. Dow was impressed when he landed at Sydney ‘the houses are nearly all built of stone or brick, the streets well paved and lighted with gas, the hotels are all good …’. He attended the theatre nightly commenting ‘the performances are pretty good and would be more so if the actors would not get drunk’. And of Wellington ‘they are forming new streets’ and ‘the inhabitants are much more sociable than in Sydney’, while ‘the natives are a much finer race of men & better looking’. Sadly ‘the only thing that is objectionable is the climate which too much resembles that of Dear Old England...’.

Copyright status:: In copyright
Research & study copies allowed: Author has been deceased for more than 50 years