A Short Account of My Voyage Per the St Kilda
from Liverpool to Otago, New Zealand
Monday, June 9th 1873
Early, a sudden squall came on and clean flew the main royal sail away. In the evening spoke to an English barque. Although we saw hundreds of flying fish every day we had never been able to catch any, nor had any come on board. We, however, found one, on the deck against "our house" this morning, and not only had a chance of inspecting it, but also of tasting. It had evidently been attracted by the lights in our cabin. It was a beautiful fish, looking quite like silver, with wings otherwise fins, which were of course contracted (or folded up) which when opened out looked like very beautiful thin silver paper. We had it fried and I thought from the mouthful I had (for we all had to taste and only one small fish, say 1/2lb for the lot of us) it was the most delicate fish I have ever tasted.
Tuesday, June 10th 1873
We started a new method of giving Walter his bath, vis: by putting him under the pump and pumping salt water on him. He liked it very much and it did him much good. We were now only a few hundred miles off the Brazilian coast about the latitude of Pernambuco.
Wednesday, June 11th 1873
A very large ship passed us on our stern, but either would not answer our signals or else could not understand them.
Friday, June 13th 1873
A dead calm came on and we felt the heat a great deal again. When I say we felt the heat I mean in the sun. I mention this, thinking you might fancy it must have been awful.
Saturday, June 14th 1873
Very hot again. One nice refreshing shower in the morning. We saw several "fin back" whales, 20 to 25 feet long. In the evening we very nearly caught a "Booby"; a very large sea bird, that occasionally sits on the rigging and is stupid enough to allow itself, frequently, to be caught, hence the name Booby. Very calm again today.
Sunday, June 15th 1873
Spoke to the "New light" barque, which passed at a distance of only about l00 yards. She was manned by a Negro crew with a Yankee skipper and was bound from Rio de Janeiro to Baltimore, 10 days out. During the day we sighted some much larger whales than yesterday. In the evening the wind freshened, ship going about 8 to 9 knots; wind S by SW; 35 days out.
Monday, June 16th 1873
Again very calm and very hot. Saw some "Noddles" a white bird about the size of a pigeon.
Tuesday, June 17th 1873
Great change in the weather. Strong breeze and in the evening blowing a gale. Shipped a great sea into the cabin and got rather wet. Beating hard against the wind and consequently not making much progress. During the day one of the martingales gave way.
Wednesday, June 18th 1873
Wind still high, with heavy squalls now and again. Saw great numbers of "Cape Pigeons". These are beautiful birds, black and white, the size of a pigeon. They follow the ship day and night and in fact we were never without them until within a mile or so from Port Chalmers' Heads. They are very tame and we used to catch a great many of them from the poop with only a piece of string with a pin (bent) on the end and a piece of pork as bait. We tried to preserve some of the wings, but failed not having the proper articles at hand. Today they "wore ship" or tacked, the first time in daylight or that I had noticed. This consists of putting the ship on an entirely different course and every sail has to be shifted at the same time or as near as nearly as possible so. Our crew succeeded in doing this much to the satisfaction of the captain in about 10 minutes. This I can now understand to have been very smart work. Under the poop there passed a "Sea-Dog" strange looking monster, but off too soon for me to give a definite description.
Thursday, June 19th 1873
Very bad weather. Had to keep in doors most of this and three following days, during which we had a variety of games such as chess, draughts, cards etc. and won and lost a great quantity of bits of matches as money.
Journey to NZ