Thirteen first-class passengers—four women, three men and six children—boarded a steamship at Durban for Australia. The vessel was a cargo ship, but had accommodation for a small number of passengers. She had started from a Swedish port in the Baltic Sea with a full cargo of pine lumber. The distance from the Baltic port to Durban is 8,000 miles, and the ship's final destination was to be Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, over 7,000 miles further east. Speaking about long voyages, this one should satisfy the most ambitious.
A Swedish woman, with two children, boarded the ship at her home port, with Sydney as first landing. From Sydney she intended to sail to the South Sea Islands, until she reached Vavau, Tonga (Friendly Islands), still 2,000 miles further east from Sydney, where she and the children were to join her husband. The time required to travel from the Baltic seaport to Vavau was over three months, counting stops.
From Durban to Melbourne, 6,000 miles, the fare was only $100 first class. Food was good, the ship steady, and weather fair. Our captain was a jovial soul, and the passengers proved a congenial group. The vessel was well manned by a white crew.
The second day out again found the albatross and Cape pigeon as our companions. Later we sailed down to latitude 39, south of which sailors term the "roarin' forties," where the weather became chilly. Two islands—St. Paul and Amsterdam—were the only land seen during the voyage, and not a single ship. One cultivates a genuine respect for seafaring men when traveling on ships that bring one in intimate touch with them. They are so thoroughly versed in the science of navigation that they know to a foot's space almost what part of the sea they are sailing over.
One of our lady passengers, returning to Australia, her native country, had her three children with her. Years before she and her husband left for South Africa, where fortune smiled on them; she was returning a wealthy woman. A New Zealander and his wife, an Australian, also were returning from South Africa. A baby had come to their home in Boerland and they were returning to Kangarooland to show the hopeful to their friends.
A feature of the sea at night in that stretch of the Indian Ocean represents what might be termed a starry marine firmament. The water contains phosphorous in sections, and, when opposing forces clash, bright, blue-white lights come thickly to view and twinkle and scintillate on crests of waves made by the wash of a vessel. These sparkling beams have their season during periods of contact, when, like embers, they gradually flitter away as the waves assume their normal level. From bow to stern the water line of a ship will be aglow with star-like streaks, the wake of a vessel appearing as a "milky way," this marine illumination taking place where the sea is "plowed" by merchantmen, as it were.
"Is that Rottnest Light ahead, captain?" asked the New Zealander. "Aye," answered the skipper. "We'll anchor outside the breakwater about 3 o'clock in the morning." We had been sixteen days out from Durban, and every one had a good voyage. In the forenoon, after the port doctor had completed his examination of the passengers and crew, we passed through the channel and into the harbor, and soon were alongside a dock at Fremantle, West Australia. We had reached Leg Three.
"What Ho!" is the national salute of Australia when countrymen meet, and if the reader will allow me to step slightly in advance of my notes, I shall take the liberty to offer, "What ho!" to "the Down-unders." The use of the term "Down-unders" is explained by Australia being situated almost in a direct line under that section of the globe constituting Europe.
"A White Australia" is the slogan of the people of the Antipodes, and the first thing one notices on coming from any of the black countries is the absence of black men about the docks.
Twelve miles up the Swan River from Fremantle, Perth, the capital and metropolis of the State of West Australia, is located. It was in 1827 that Captain Stirling sailed to the mouth of the Swan River, where Fremantle is located. He decided the location would make a good settlement site. Perth later sprang into existence, however, and grew so fast that Fremantle, with a population of 18,000 people, is but a port for the State Capital.