This is an extract from a 2,500 word letter which may be of interest. The writer, Dr CA McDiarmid, returned to Scotland where he practiced medecine. Melbourne, Port Phillip, April 14th 1840 My Dear Alexr, I know not how I am to acquaint you of the melancholy loss which I have sustained since I came on board & the misfortune to lose - It is with feelings of heartfelt pain and deep loss that I have to inform you that God has seen proper to take my beloved Clementina to himself. She died on the 23rd of January after an illness of five weeks & 4 days about 1,000 miles to the westward of the Cape of Good Hope. The immediate cause of her death was Cramps in the stomach...I have lost one whom I valued more than life itself...The Tomatin goes from here to China & will not likely be home for 6 or 7 months. We were as comfortable on board as it were possible when aboard ship. The captain was very kind to poor Clementina and did all in his power to make her comfortable. He and all the cabin passengers felt her death very much and I may say all on board. Our cabin passengers were very agreeable & we were all very happy together till God saw proper to make a break in our little circle. There was a great deal of sickness amongst the passengers, They brought both smallpox and measles on board the both of which broke out about 12 days after we left Campbelltown, They got the smallpox at Greenock and the measles at Fort William, 8 children & 4 & adults died of both diseases & 4 children who died got over the enraptured stages very well but were either carried off by secondary fever or dysentery. Were it not that the diseases were brought on board we would not have had more than 4 deaths among the passengers & these 4 were children who were sickly when they came on board. There were no births. It is a sad thing to treat infectious diseases on board, especially under the line. We arrived at Adelaide on the 9th March making a voyage of 120 days from Campbeltown. We left Adelaide on the 28th March and landed here on the 8th April, Adelaide is a wretched place... The Glen?lly arrived here yesterday with emigrants from Greenock, she is obliged to serve quarantine in consequence of having fever on board. PS I forgot to mention that the servant we engaged at Greenock turned out a black sheep, she was an excellent servant but so very drunken that we were obliged to turn her off about a fortnight after sailing. All the other single women on board were bad characters, so we were obliged to do without. > From: "Grant E. L. Buttars" <GButtars@taybank.freeserve.co.uk> > Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:52:01 +0100 > To: PERTHSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [PERTH] Re: Shipping Scotland to New Zealand. > Resent-From: PERTHSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com > Resent-Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 11:53:56 -0600 > >>> If any of you are looking for ancestors leaving NZ and coming to > Australia >>> in the mid to late 1800's try oz mariners site. I help do the lists for >>> this site and we have quite a few ships from Dunedin and Auckland to >>> Sydney. Address is http://www.mariners.records.nsw.gov.au > > I think this should be http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/ > > Regards, > ============== > Grant E. L. Buttars > Dundee, Scotland > http://www.taybank.freeserve.co.uk/ > > > ==== PERTHSHIRE Mailing List ==== > -------------------------------------------------- > Remember to change the subject line to reflect > YOUR message to the list. > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/SCT/PERTHSHIRE.html > -------------------------------------------------- >