Emanuel Ball shipboard journal of voyage from Newcastle to Sydney, and then on the S. S. Chimborazo to Plymouth, England

MLMSS 12157

fonds

17 December 1885 - 9 February 1886

9680272

0.02 metres of textual material (1 volume) - manuscript

Emanuel Ball (1855-1927) and his wife Sarah nee Griffiths were both from the Parish of Cold Hatton, near Crudgington, Shropshire, England. Emanuel and his family migrated to New South Wales in 1879 and settled in Fern Street, Islington, where Emanuel worked as a carpenter. Together Emanuel and Sarah had three children while in Australia – sons Sydney and Albert and one daughter, Florence Dora, who died in infancy. Sarah and the remaining children returned to England in 1885, followed by Emanuel soon afterwards.

Reference:
Library acquisition file

Passed by descent through the family to the donor, Rosemary Thomas nee Ball, who is the great granddaughter of Emanuel Ball

This collection contains a shipboard journal written by Emanuel Ball while on board the ships S.S. Newcastle and S.S. Chimborazo during the voyage to England to rejoin his wife, Sarah, and their children who had returned earlier in the year owing to her homesickness. Handwritten in pencil, the leatherbound exercise book records daily life and activities, weather conditions, and various ports along the way, including Melbourne and Adelaide. In the entry for 16 January 1886 there is a description of the funeral of a newborn baby who died at sea. The journal also contains poems and song lyrics addressed to his family, conveying his longing to be reunited with them.

Attached within the pages of the journal for the entry dated Monday, 8 February 1886 is a carbon copy of a Post Office Telegraphs message sent by Emanuel Ball from Plymouth. Accompanying the journal is a Passengers’ Contract Ticket from the ‘Orient Line of Steam-ships to London’ dated 19 December 1885, issued to E. Ball, ticket number 3635. This item had become detached from the journal at the entry dated Thursday, 17 December 1885.

Chronological

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

On the inside back cover of the journal is a hand drawn picture of a person's head, and other pages have scribblings. These may belong to Wilson J. Ball, father of the donor who recorded in his own journal in 1984 that, 'I must have had access to it as a child since I scribbled over it here and there in pencil. Whether I was punished for such literary vandalism, I don't know.'

Reference:
Library acquisition file