Blacks and Bushrangers: Adventures in Queensland

by E. B. Kennedy

It is not our business, nor indeed our wish, to go into the many details of a long sea voyage, tedious alike to either passengers or readers: voyages which have been described in many hundred volumes, in many thousands of private letters. The emigrant-ship has no battles to recount, no running down of slavers, in fact no life of the tar pure and simple, further made interesting by his adventures and exploits ashore. The emigrant-ship, though just as useful in her line, runs the same humdrum voyage year after year, unrelieved by any adventure, save the inevitable meeting with shark or whale, the capture of albatross or Cape pigeons, varied with such innocent amusements as a little dancing, and a very fair amount of interesting scandal. In fact a little world, of no interest scarcely to any one excepting those on board.

But as far as Mat was concerned, the voyage promised to be full of interest. He had long wished to better himself in reading, in general knowledge, and, as he himself said, in speaking better English, and here, in three months’ idleness, as the landsmen chiefly regarded it, was the opportunity he had sought for.

The first few days after leaving the Channel were devoted by officers and crew to getting the vessel ship-shape, by the emigrants in arranging their “kits,” and generally “shaking down,” not, however, that they were shaken down or up by the action of the sea, for light breezes and calms prevailed for the first week after losing sight of the coast of Devon, and it was not until the twelfth day out that the island of Madeira was sighted.

At the period of our story, many ships went to sea underhanded; the Young Austral was one of these, and the captain, who had been casting his eyes over any likely lads, one day called all hands aft to say, that if any men liked to form themselves into a volunteer crew, it would not only give them plenty to do during the voyage, but, besides, they would have the opportunity of gaining general knowledge. For that he would be glad to hold a class during his spare hours, for instruction in matters connected with working and steering a ship, that a willing volunteer crew would be of great help in the manual working of the ship, and that though he could not compel any one to attend to his duties, which would be often hard, and sometimes monotonous, yet he expected that any one that joined would stick to his word and obey those over him.

At the conclusion of this speech, most of his audience retreated, saying they had had work enough ashore, where they were paid: but some sixteen, differently disposed, stepped forward, amongst them Mat and Tim, and offered their services. These men were divided into port and starboard watches, and by the wish of the majority, Mat was made lieutenant of port watch, with Tim as “Bo’sun.”

It was in the “Doldrums” that the Young Austral signalled a homeward-bound ship, which, in answer to a request from the former, said she would take letters home, so a boat was lowered, bearing a small mail, and containing amongst other letters one from Mat to the Squire, begging him to make the acquaintance of Burns, by taking a letter, which he enclosed, to him. Tim wrote to his father, explaining all the circumstances of his absence, winding up by saying that he was very happy, with plenty to do, and that he did not try to get a passage in this homeward-bound ship, the Asia, because the captain said that “the old tub was one hundred days out from Akyab, and that we would never get home at this rate.”

As time passed, our voyagers found that they were making good progress; the rough sports connected with crossing the line were forgotten—the brothers vied with their messmates in zealously taking their share of the working of the ship, keeping watches, washing decks, and to such efficiency had they attained in going aloft, that by the time that their good ship was in the “roaring forties,” they sometimes drew forth praise from even the old “salts,” who, at the commencement of their apprenticeship, had watched their proceedings somewhat contemptuously.

More than one of the volunteers by this time had “jacked out,” as Mat said, and others appeared likely to follow their example, some from sheer inability to go aloft.

“Probably never been up anything bigger than an apple-tree,” said Tim.

The captain complimented the remainder on “sticking to their guns,” and both he and the doctor gave them regular instructions. With the latter, our twins worked hard, both in writing and also reading out loud, whilst their time was also taken up with the captain, in some of his leisure hours, in studying geography, also working the ship both by sun and stars, and afterwards learning how to prick off her track on the chart.