Griffiths Antipodes

The Life of Henry George Powell, 1828-1914
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-3-7583-4727-6
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 92 Seiten

Henry George Powell was a free-thinking sceptic, who published his world-view under the pseudonym ANTIPODES. This biography follows his trail from London to Australia and back and inquires into his life and his philosophy.

Andrew Griffiths, who lives near Darmstadt in Germany, has been researching his great grandfather Henry George Powell for over ten years.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Griffiths, Andrew

Leseproben

The voyage
How much courage did it take to venture on the long sea voyage to Australia in 1852? It was well known that the journey was hazardous and uncomfortable, but the newspapers were full of glowing accounts of life in the new colonies, as well as dire warnings. Earlier in the same year, there had been fevered accounts of Australian gold strikes, which promised riches even bigger than those of the Californian gold-fields. Reynolds’ News reported in January 1852: “The quantities now likely to be produced from this colony of pure gold stagger all belief”. Another report from June 1852 referred specifically to the recent finds in the colony of Victoria, which would be the eventual goal of the three travellers. “Rewards were offered for the first discovery of gold fields in Victoria and the result is that two rich fields have been found yielding more gold than all the New South Wales diggings put together. Other fields are turning up daily, immense quantities of the precious metal are brought into town, and everything is turned “topsy-turvy”, including provisions, which are up to famine prices.” Even if the two brothers had no intention of joining the diggings themselves, everybody else in the colony seemed to want to, and, according to one account, it was proving difficult to get a house built or even one’s shoes repaired in Melbourne. That must have seemed an attractive opportunity to young men like Henry, a corn chandler and Albert, a stationer. The ship Arrogant, 849 tons burthen, under the command of Captain Dye, departed from the Port of London on November 20th 1852, with some fifty cabin and 190 steerage passengers, a small amount of cargo (mostly spirits, bound for Sydney), £85,000 in gold and £2,000 in silver currency. The Powells were steerage passengers with bookings to Sydney, although they actually disembarked at Port Phillip (Melbourne). Arrogant had been built in 1848 for transatlantic service at the McKay shipyard in Boston, and originally called the Anglo-American but, in 1852, she was sold to an English company and re-named. She was technically a packet-boat, but had the lines of a clipper. The following illustration shows her still sailing under the American flag. and with a “T” on the foresail for her then owners “Train&Co” (Richard C McKay “Donald McKay and his Famous Sailing Ships”, Courier Corp 2013). It might have been the following advertisement from Lloyd’s Weekly (October 10th 1852), or one like it, that persuaded Henry, Albert and Elizabeth to book passages on the Arrogant. “AUSTRALIA – A party now being formed for the Gold Fields, including a Mineralogist, Engineer, Surveyor, and Surgeon, superintended by a practical Gold Refiner of more than twenty-five years experience in the most successful modes of treating gold, will leave London by the ship ARROGANT on the 15th November, calling at Plymouth November 20th. The expedition will be fully equipped with patent amalgamating, powerful crushing and other requisite machinery, mining tools, stores, tents, &c. Parties desirous of joining the same must make immediate application to the committee at Bell’s Colonial Rooms, 23, Crutched Friars, between 10 and 1 o’clock and on board the ship between 11 and 3.” On the same page, a bookseller was promoting copies of the newly published Passengers’ Act for potential emigrants. One of the Arrogant’s passengers must have bought a copy. There was a fourth member of the Powell travelling party; William Aston Bucknall was the eighteen-year-old son of a Lambeth cork merchant, whose residence was only a five-minute walk from Vassall Road. Later, William was to work with Albert Powell in the Bendigo goldfields. This announcement, which appeared in the Greenock Advertiser on November 5th, offered steerage passages with the Arrogant for £18, which is presumably what the Powells paid. The voyage began with only five days delay and on November 22nd, she was reported off Deal: “arriving from the River, the Arrogant for Sydney, NSW”. Shipping news was published assiduously in the newspapers, as so many people were thirsting for news of their family in the colonies. No doubt Charles and Louisa had mixed feelings, when they read the following item in the London Standard of November 30th: “Plymouth, 29th Nov. Wind NW. Sailed, the Arrogant, for Australia.” The next news to reach England must have sounded very hopeful (Lloyd’s Weekly, February 27th 1853): “The Arrogant, from Plymouth Nov. 29, put into one of the Cape de Verde isles on the 24th of Dec. All well. The emigrants were bountifully regaled with the fruits of the country; and a number of the crew and passengers dined on board the American man-of-war Germantown, on Christmas-day, when they were regaled with plenty of plum-pudding, &c. The Arrogant sailed for her destination on the 29th of Dec.” The vessel’s route would take her from the Cape Verde Islands to Cape Town and from there to Melbourne, where most of the passengers were bound. She then sailed on to Sydney with her cargo and the rest of the passengers. Before reaching the Cape, on February 1st, the wife of Thomas Dawsett of Portsmouth died of consumption on board the Arrogant, She was 21 years old and a cabin passenger. That must have been unnerving, but more problems were in store. After their arrival in Melbourne, the “Argus” reported that “some unpleasantness has, we believe, occurred between the passengers and the captain, but of little more consequence than frequently takes place in passenger ships.” The Sydney Morning Herald knew rather more about the “unpleasantness”, having received a report that had appeared in a Cape Town newspaper: “It was under the Passengers’ Act of 1852 that the Arrogant, ship, of 850 tons, Captain Dye, left Plymouth on the 29th November last, with two hundred and forty passengers bound for Melbourne and Sydney. On her passage out, she had touched at St Jago [Cape Verde Islands] and the Cape of Good Hope and at the latter port no less than one hundred and thirty convictions were obtained against Captain Dye for breaches of the Passengers Act.” The Passengers’ Act regulated passengers’ rights and one of its provisions was that no alcoholic beverages may be sold to passengers, despite the fact that some of the passengers had been promised beer and spirits on board by the shipping agent. Most of Captain Dye’s convictions related to this clause. But Captain Dye was also summoned for having issued to the passengers coffee in an unroasted state, contrary to the Act. He was fined £15 for this offence. He was further summoned for a breach of the 22nd section, relating to the serviceable condition and number of the water closets, for which a fine of £50 was inflicted. The Arrogant left the Cape of Good Hope on February 25th to cross the Indian Ocean. As if substandard coffee and a queue for the bathroom were not enough to contend with, there was a severe storm and a fight between crew members awaiting them just before their arrival. The following was reported from the Court in Melbourne: “Thomas Roberts, chief officer of the ship Arrogant was brought up, charged with having on the 1st April last, fired a pistol at one of the seamen named Beard, by which he was shot through the cheek [sounds like Beard had a close shave!]. The evidence of the wounded man and the master of the ship was taken, by which it appeared that a quarrel had arisen in consequence of insubordination on the part of Beard; blows had been exchanged, and the mate having received a violent blow over the forehead had gone into his cabin and shortly afterwards came out and fired a pistol at the man. The case was remanded for further evidence.” The storm was encountered “just off the Howe” and resulted in her jib-boom being carried away, but they arrived at Melbourne two days later, on April 3rd 1853 and the Powells were doubtless thankful to disembark. The reason for the party not continuing to Sydney as booked may have been Henry’s sea-sickness. Twenty years later, he recalled: “And all this time with memory tender,
My past seasickness I remember.” It could also have been the influence of Albert Powell’s friend William Bucknall, whose destination, according to the ship’s manifest, was Port Phillip, that induced them to leave the ship at Melbourne. The voyage of the Arrogant is worth pursuing a little further, even without the Powells on board, because it helps to understand the conditions they travelled under: ~ On May 2nd, two weeks after arriving in Sydney, Mr Willoughby, the second officer of the Arrogant appeared on a summons to answer a charge preferred against him by Captain Dye of using threatening language. ~ On November 11th, the Arrogant rammed the Elizabeth Thompson on its way out of Newcastle harbour, ~ On November 29th, E. J. Milman the cook, lately belonging to the Arrogant claimed £10 wages from Captain Dye. The wages had been withheld because of inefficiencies. Captain...