Hello Listers, Has anyone on the list ever come across an account, diary, memoir, even a historical novel, that describes what people did during those long voyages? I am particularly interested in the period 1790-1810, and to be very precise, would like to know what children did on their way to England to pass the time. But any tip will be useful. Thanks again, Frances

Hello, A lot of children were sent back to England at this period by their parents. These children were often taken by another older Lady returning to England. Officer and officials wives could rarely go home until their husbands had completed 25 years service, and most children were born perhaps 5 to 7 years into this service, and would go home in the 14 to 18th year of service. If you look into the shipping records of the period this is quite common. Mrs Helen Baber took children from other families in 1815. I don't have a transcript, but in Warren Hasting's letters I found a fascinating letter from another official written in London following a voyage home. He describes how the ships travelling in convoy would occasional come close enough together and would be travelling so slowly in the Doldrums that all the women would be rowed to the largest vessel for a dance, and then return to their ships. Of course much time was spent getting very cold and wet, but these voyages often had more pleasant moments. I wish that letters had survived from children, because several of my ancestors travelled home from India as 5 to 7 year olds to go to school in England, a land they had never been to before. Nick Balmer ----- Original Message ----- From: <fbsingh1947@aol.com> To: <india@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 5:21 PM Subject: [INDIA] life on board an EIC ship from the passenger's perspective > > Hello Listers, > > Has anyone on the list ever come across an account, diary, memoir, even a > historical novel, that describes what people did during those long > voyages? I am particularly interested in the period 1790-1810, and to be > very precise, would like to know what children did on their way to England > to pass the time. But any tip will be useful. > > Thanks again, > > Frances > > > > > > > > > > ===== India Mailing List ===== > > Families in British India Society: http://www.fibis.org > > > Archives for this list can be found at: > http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=INDIA > and at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/INDIA > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >

Frances wrote > Has anyone on the list ever come across an account, diary, memoir, even a historical novel, that describes what people did during those long voyages? I am particularly interested in the period 1790-1810, and to be very precise, would like to know what children did on their way to England to pass the time. But any tip will be useful. This is NOT precisely what you asked for, but I supply anyway - it is an account of a journey on a sailer from UK to New Zealand in 1849 http://fachefiles.tripod.com/id14.html Here is another - the John Wickliffe 1847 from UK to New Zealand. You will need to scroll through for some time to read this account, but there are many other interesting urls given within the script found at this web site. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzbound/diaries.htm#Otago Happy reading Gail Riddell (Te Kohanga) Skype: karleykat Home phone: +64 9 232 8440 Cellphone: +64 21 961 478 reply to: grid2@wc.net.nz