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Published on Sunday, 10 August 2008 03:40
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This is a reprint of an article from the printed edition of The FIG Tree Newsletter printed in February, May and August 1995
From Liverpool to Hobart and Sydney in the ship Othello - 1833/34. Journal kept by ship's surgeon Thomas Mitchell. Diary by Robert Miller.
08/01/1833 - DEPARTURE Miller family and relatives leave Paisley with two carts, each 25cwt. Traveling with fellow emigrants Duncan and Jean McKellar on the Vulcan steamship from Glasgow to Liverpool. The FENTONs arrive by steamship from Dublin with 20 tons of cargo.
08/27/1833 - After adverse weather, Othello tugged out by the Dublin bound Gipsey Steamer. Much sickness.
08/30/1833 - DEATH - SHOCK - DOUBTS? James Fenton dies of cholera. (Miller) "We were at dinner but with one blast the table was cleared, Mr. Fenton is dead. burial service... "the state of his wife and children is out of my power to describe."
09/02/1833 - "Elizabeth is very bad... The Lord have mercy upon her and spare her a bit longer to her little ones."
09/08/1833 - "I rose at the crowning of the cock, it is one of the finest morning I have seen in my life."
09/16/1833 - NEARLY ON THE ROCKS at Fogo & Brava .had she missed stays.... (Miller) "We were all placed at the ropes to pull when the command was given and round she came in a moment and saved our lives."
09/19/1833 - DISMASTED AND ADRIFT "when a flash of lightning struck the main mast and it went by the board carrying with it the top of the fore mast so that all the sail it left us standing was the spanker and the peak of it was down."
09/23/1833 - ALL HANDS TO WORK "Carpenters and joiners are now in great request whether they belong to a UNION or not is never asked." Carpenter Robert Miller had been busy since the calamity, "There were four passengers and mayself began with the carpenter to set up the jury masts and in five days we had her in sailing trim but we were becalmed and made nothing of it for three weeks."
09/30/1833 - PIRATES - - - "We immediately knocked out our ports and cleared the guns our passengers also got out their fowling pieces and muskets... we made a good show of hands upon deck." ...13 year old James Fenton recorded that the women dressed as men to give more adversarial impression.
10/13/1833 - CROSSING THE LINE "A six pounder was fired and his majesty announced... his car was one of the gun carriages and there he came in state with Amphitrite at his side who carried a tompion with a colour over it by way of a canopy... he had his barber with him."
10/07/1833 - BIRTH "called 5am to J. Harkness's wife and I delivered her safely of a daughter the smallest child I ever saw... mother and child likely to do well."
10/08/1833 - "Harris child continues to get worse... hydrocephalus."
10/14/1833 - "J.Harkness infant died."
10/24/1833 - DENTISTRY - "scaled teeth of two gentlemen."
10/30/1833 - RIO DE JANEIRO in quarantine.
10/01/1833 - admitted to free pratique.
11/03/1833 - MUGGED AND STRIPPED - "some passengers have come aboard they have been robbed of their watches and money and three of them are on shore stripped of their clothes. Harris "Infant's coffin to English cemetery" Customs "they were going to open the coffin."
11/10/1833 - YOUNG EMPEROR OF BRAZIL - "his carriage I think no private gentleman would have owned it and as to his guards such a dirty set of ruffians..." The Fentons went on a sight seeing tour as favoured visitors and young James was impressed by the cold Emperor and also by the burial corpses on view at the churches to prove that they had not died by violence.
11/12/1833 - FUN AND GAMES - "Fitzgerald's son fell overboard and cut his head severly on one of the boats alongside, one of the men jumped overboard and brought him up, just as he was sinking..."
11/13/1833 - "David Fawn's son sleeping under the carpenter's bench when a large chisel fell off upon his temple... did not touch the artery... three sutures..."
11/15/1833 - "Fitzgerald.s daughter... fractured her collar bone... reduced it. ... some of the children will get killed for they are always in mischief.
11/19/1833 - "Brown very ill... on shore Sunday and got drunk - fell from a great height... slept in the open air, bled him, etc."
11/22/1833 - NEW MASTS AND RIGGING "got out the stump of the main mast... the mizen topmast up on the 15th foremast stepped pn the 16th we have carpenters and riggers from HMS Spartiate. (Miller) Our main mast, a fine log of yellow pine 79 ft long by 2 ft in the side of the square. The fore mast was white pine the finest log I ever saw."
11/24/1833 - SLAVES Shooting expedition "slaves were working but they all seemed happy and comfortable much more than the labourers in England. Slave ships were treated as pirate ships by the British Navy.
12/03/1833 - ANOTHER CASUALTY The joiner fell from the main yard arm into the long boat cutting his head severely and breaking his arm at the neck of the humerus. Taken to the Spartiate for treatment. "I took from four oz. VII of blood.
12/09/1833 - SUMMARY JUSTICE - "a fresh passenger... a very obstopulous character... quarrelled... left alone until the Captain came on board when he was ironed and instead of tobacco he was treated with an iron pump bolt to chew and tied to the capstan to ruminate during the night."
12/31/1833 - AULD LANG SYNE - "some of the steerage passengers kicked up a terrible row with old kettles, etc..."
01/01/1834 - LAW AND ORDER - "A d--d scotch porridge pot yclept Forrester game me some sauce yesterday... today he tried the same thing with Mr. Wilson who gave him a couple of dabs in the muzzle which effectively silenced him."
01/02/1834 - FEELING BLEEDING AWFUL - "confounded bad... obliged to be bled... ably performed by Cpt. Legett under my own superintendence."
01/04/1834 - THE ROARING FORTIES - "blew a very heavy gale which split the fore sail swum me out of my bunk... promenade to see how affairs stood... those occupying lower berths declared the ship sinking and called on all the saints in the calendar to assist them... the sea had us stuck astern... stove in three of the second cabin windows and inundated the inhabitants of the lower berths... steerage they were not so wet but their chests etc. were all adrift."
02/17/1837 - THE PROMISED LAND - "S.W. Cape of Van Diemans Land its appearance was hailed by passengers with rapture..."
FENTON FAMILY from IRELAND
PRIME MOVERS
1829 Ships MARY & DENMARK HILL from Mauritius to Hobart Town. Cpt. Michael and his wife Bessie led the way to VAN DIEMEN.s LAND via India and Mauritius. Bessie Fenton was cousin to Viceroy Lord Lawrence and his two brothers both Generals. Her Journal edited by H.W. Lawrence and published in 1901 gives a fascinating account of India, Mauritius and the early days in Tasmania. With so much material it is difficult to select an incident. Her first horse and buggy journey out of Hobart was in sleet passing through New Norfolk to the area now called "Fenton Forest". Her account reflects the raw state of the country, they stopped off with remote settlers - to find Mr. Bell's home - "... it was so dark we could barely distinguish one object from another, Jundge my distress at this juncture, with a sick infant on my bare knee and almost powerless with fear and cold my self. The distant bark of a dog was to me a sound whose blessedness I shall never forget, then the report of a gun directed us where to drive... Where to lay down was my next perplexity... accomodation was that of a bachelor. He had slept in his sea cot swung in his only bedchamber".
A linen shirt was found for the drenched child. Mr. Bell said they should continue on the other bank of the Derwent.
"Fenton then took a survey of Mr. Bell's boat and said he would attempt the Indian mode of crossing, with the body of the vehicle in the boat, and the wheels over the side".
Bessie wrote many letters and schemed to get her relatives there, unfortunately her brother, James Knox, and family were lost at sea on their way to Van Diemen's Land, from India. Captian Thomas Fenton and James Fenton, and their families followed.
FOLLOWERS
1832 SHIP LINDSAYS - from Sligo, Ireland
Cpt. Thomas arrived in 1832 with his wife, Leonora, and 7 children under the age of 9 years. Bessie said Leonora was a rich lady from Bath (I wonder did she choose to go cheerfully or was she pushed?) They brought the 270 ton ship Lindsays and brought with them seventy indentured servants (including children). Also recorded in "They came from the Mall", Ettie Pullan.
1833 SHIP OTHELLO - from Liverpool
James Fenton and family from Dunlavin, Ireland via steamship from Dublin to Liverpool.
Martha - Widowed on the 4th day at sea - and her six children were met on the arrival of the Othello in Hobart by Cpts. Michael and Thomas.
LIFE IN IRELAND
- why leave? - Why did wealthy people take such hazardous voyages and put their families to so great a risk?
Fentons were involved in the 1798 rebellion and French invasion of Ireland. The unsettled state, fear of another rebellion, plus over-breeding probably promoted emigration. Bessie Fenton gave a good account of Van Diemen's Land.
Life was far from dull - A dispute over a heiress was decided by jumping a chasm (Fenton.s Leap) over the sea, the challenger and horse fell into the sea and perished.
A duel settled the dispute over the ownership of a wrecked ship, Major Hillas was shot and died.
Cpt. Michael carried the colours at Martinique and was at the siege of Platburg.
LIFE IN TASMANIA
Cpt. Michael became speaker in the House Assembly and he has been followed by a succession of Fentons. James (13 yrs old on the Voyage) pioneered lumbering at Davenport. His book, "Bush Life in Tasmania 50 Years Ago" tells of his struggles and success. He also wrote "A History of Tasmania".
AUSTRALIAN FAMILY TREE
Sophie Fenton, secretary to Lord Northcliffe, produced an extensive family tree dating from 1700 in Silgo to 1910 in Australia and now brought up to date. This includes the Cpts Michael and Thomas and also the original Flying Doctor of the 1930’s, Clyde Fenton.
THE MILLER FAMILY - SHIP OTHELLO
Robert Miller, carpenter, was not poor. He could have afforded Cabin class, but perhaps his devout upbringing inspired frugality. His in-laws, the Muirs, were relatively wealthy and later correspondence suggests they were in the cotton business in Paisley (The Scottish background and possible reasons for emigration could be studied). Land was acquired at Gerringgong, later subdivided. In 1977, a reunion was held and according to Adele Liddle, nee Miller, about 50 were present.
REVIEWS OF “VOYAGE OF THE OTHELLO”
Reviewed by Alan Cameron
In 1920 a hand-ruled foolscap notebook, the journal of a ship’s surgeon during a 67-week voyage in 1833-34, turned up at auction in Beverley, Yorkshire and was bought by the father of the editors of this published version. So it has now been given the safety of numbers in print.
Too few such precious primary historical resources are lucky enough to find such recognition and painstaking editing.
Surgeon Mitchell, like so many more travellers of his day, ended his life in 1837 in the feverridden swamps of the Cameroons, during a later voyage. But this journal, illuminating so much of the way he and his contemporaries looked out on the world, of sea-life in passenger and emigrant ships and its dangers, has survived.
To the journal itself, the editors have added extensive, explanatory notes, commentary and letters from Surgeon Mitchell’s career subsequent to the Australian voyage.
From worldwide research extending over many years they have culled contemporary news reports, passenger lists of arrivals in Hobart and Sydney and compiled a history of one of the emigrant families who sailed on the Othello.
This family, the Fentons, made a notable contribution to Australian life, one descendant, the late Clyde Fenton, was the original Queensland flying doctor. Another is Air Commodore Harold Fenton and a third, C.B.M. Fenton, is Speaker in the Tasmanian Legislative Assembly.
The book is thus a piece of scholarship of the highest quality and also one which is eminently readable as social maritime and medical history. In Australia’s Bicentennial Year it mutually has special relevance to the history of the foundations of the Australian nation.
An associated display at the Liverpool Maritime Museum, an Exhibition of Emigrant Families is on view until the end of 1988.
Illustrations, a map and attractive design make the book even more appealing. At it’s price, it is a bargain.
Anyone interested in the theme of emigration to Australia and the background of this great migration in early 19th century Britain is urged to secure a copy of this excellent book.
NAUTICAL MAGAZINE
Vol.240, No.4 October, 1988
Journal of a Voyage from Liverpool to Hobart Town and Sydney. Edited by C.M. and N.B. Abbott, York: SESSIONS OF YORK, 7.95 Pounds Sterling.
This remarkable little book. It is the product of many years research and should be of great interest to those with a feeling for the early sea links between Liverpool and Australia. In essence it is from “Journal of a Surgeon” carried on the 404-ton Othello sailing in 1833, from Liverpool to Australia. The journal itself is fascinating, but is made the more interesting by the background work put in by Max and Norman Abbott into all of the circumstances of the voyage.
The result is quite a little masterpiece; well researched; well presented and a book for all enthusiasts in this subject. The minutiae of the voyage brings to life the reality of the way the people lived 150 years ago.
Other material is also included in the book about a voyage to West Africa. Overall an excellent read and reasonable value.
Mr. Abbott has also provided information that connects his Fentons to the Fentons talked about in past issues of The FIG Tree News (Elijah Fenton, the English poet). On chart is the one from John Ward’s Borough of Stoke-Upon- Trent (This chart was shown in Volume 1, Issue 3, Page 5, Fentons of England).
He also has tree charts for the Fentons of the Glen Imaal, Fentons of Tasmania and Fentons of Dromore and Castletown. Due to the complexity of these charts, I do not wish to publish them in the newsletter for fear of getting the information wrong and misleading someone about their lines.
I am sure that Mr. Abbott would be willing to share this information or maybe he is even still selling the book Voyage of Othello, which I believe many of these charts came from. If you would like, I would also be willing to send copies of what Mr. Abbott has shared with me if you would send a self addressed stamped envelope.
It would be preferred that those requiring this information go to the source that I got the information from in the first place. He can be reached at the following address:
Norman Abbott58 Mallinson OvalHarrogate, HG2 9HJ England
