Six Letters From the ColoniesSeaton, R. C. (Robert Cooper)
History
Six Letters From the Colonies
Seaton, R. C. (Robert Cooper)
Australia -- Description and travel
"O'er the glad waters of the deep blue sea,
Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,"
if the Pirate was master of a steamer? I think not. However, I do
not deny that a steamer has many and great advantages over a ship.
The chief advantage, and the only one to which I need allude, is the
prosaic but not unimportant one of better food, and this with many
people would decide in favour of a steamer. Perhaps we were
exceptionally unfortunate in this respect. The Hampshire is a barque
of 1,100 tons, and belonging to Captain Hosack, of Liverpool. She is
most commodious; the cabins are much larger than is usual in a
vessel of this size. Mine was not a large one, but it measured 8ft.
by 10ft. 6in. There is, too, a poop deck 70ft. long, which is
scarcely ever touched, even by a heavy sea. When people are
constantly in each other's society for so long they gradually throw
off many of the artificial restraints of society, and exhibit
themselves as they would in their own homes. The result is curious.
A constant process of natural selection goes on, by which like seeks
like, and the estimation in which a particular person is held by
his fellow-passengers is often very different at the close of the
voyage from what it was at the beginning. Taking all things into
consideration, however, I think the saloon passengers on the
Hampshire must be considered to have borne the ordeal very well. We
were 24 in number--rather too many for comfort--all (with two
exceptions) young men, going out to the colonies for various
reasons--some for health, some for business. The two exceptions were
a Canon of the Church of England and his wife, and another gentleman
who was travelling with his nephew. The Canoness was the only lady
on board, the result of which probably was that, though the
civilising influence imparted by the presence of ladies was lost,
yet many jealousies, that might have been thereby occasioned, were
avoided.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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