Lottie had already lost one child in infancy, born between Edith and George. With a 25 per cent infant mortality rate, the odds were stacked against all babies surviving in a family. That death would have been difficult enough, but to lose a child at sixteen years, on the cusp of adulthood, seems so unfair. I wonder if Harriett had been a poorly child, one with a ‘weak chest’ like Harry. Or perhaps she had been perfectly healthy, the one they had not had to worry about at all. I wonder who it was that gave them most concern, of the children still with them: Charlotte, Annie, Hervey, Edith or George? Who was it they moved across the globe, to a new world, to save?
More than one million immigrants headed for Victoria between 1860 and 1900. The rush of gold had waned, but the go-ahead colony remained alluring. More than half of these immigrants came from England. Immigration policies sought to limit the arrival of dark-skinned, Asian and non-English-speaking people into the colonies, while actively encouraging, even paying for the passage of, favoured groups like English migrants. For decades, Australian governments would advertise and solicit British ‘men for the land’ and British ‘women for the home’ to come to this land of opportunity with good wages and guaranteed employment.
After a brief stop at Plymouth to take on mail and passengers, the ship settled into her long sea journey. Despite being a steamer, the SS Ionic carried quite a bit of canvas on her four masts, which saved fuel and helped her make 300, sometimes 350, miles per day. Even this cracking pace was not quite on a par with the records set by the clippers, one of which flew past the Ionic even when she was doing 13 knots. Slow and steady wins the race, though, and the solid reliability of the steamers, whatever the wind, would ultimately drive the thoroughbred clippers off the high seas.
The ship carried both first- and third-class passengers and the Harms, in third class, had the whole lower deck to themselves. The boys amused themselves by helping haul on sails and assisting with the watches. It was not uncommon for male passengers at the time to relieve the boredom of the voyage by helping set sails or assisting in the store.
George got in a fight with an older boy, over a girl. He won the fight, a bloodied nose, a new friend and a girlfriend. Perhaps to keep the young boys occupied in more seemly activities, the first-class passengers organised sporting events – obstacle courses and jumping races. George claimed he won five shillings despite being the youngest.
What activities kept the young girls like Edith occupied is not recorded. Although the ratio of female to male passengers immigrating to Victoria in the nineteenth century was almost equivalent, far fewer journals and letters by women survive. By some accounts the women occupied themselves with tea parties, concerts, card games, drinking, singing or prayer. Other accounts saw them confined to the sick bay, caring for children and mothers or entirely concerned with food. Some seemed to have been restricted to their cabins, permitted out only at designated times, perhaps to protect them from the often brutal world of shipboard life.
‘It seems as if they tried to deprive us of every liberty,’ one passenger complained.
I can imagine few things more horrific than being confined to the lower decks on a long sea voyage, without access to the bracing airs and open vistas that are the sole solace of a journey that is, at best, tediously boring and, at worst, nauseatingly violent. But the experience varies dramatically by class, time and the type of ship as well as by gender. The voyage by steamer seems steadier and easier, by all accounts, than the earlier, overcrowded days of sail.
Jane Snodgrass made the journey from London to Melbourne by barque in 1886 with five small children in tow. Her account describes the discomfort of seasickness and injuries, socialising with fellow passengers, singing in concerts, special tidbits from the galley for the children. She is grateful to the sailors, often ‘one shilling a month’ men working their way to Australia, for helping her to keep the children occupied.
‘The passengers have been entertained in the usual manner throughout by concerts, theatricals and other forms of amusement,’ the Hobart Mercury would report on the Ionic’s voyage.
I just hope Edith had a good supply of books.
The ship pulled in at Tenerife a week later for coal supplies. I am following in the Harms’ wake as closely as I can, reading the journal of John Fraser, who made the same journey the following year. His descriptions help me imagine what the Harms family would have seen.
‘The conical peaks sloping almost from the shore covered with fruit trees of all description and terminating in different peaks looked very pretty in the morning sun,’ wrote John in his diary. ‘The volcanic peak looks very barren towards the top but with the aid of a glass trees can be seen a long way up. The houses are nearly all white brick, low and flat roofed mostly one storey high but there are a few distinguished looking buildings and they all present a clean lively appearance from here but some of those that have been ashore say that the streets are very dirty.’
At Tenerife, the ship was accosted by Portuguese and Spanish traders selling fruit, tobacco, cigars, hats and other items. Henry bought a large basket of bananas for just two shillings, but they proved too strange for the rest of the family and he had to eat them himself. It would take some
