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frolicking about today.'
This sad little boy was the younger son of Jacob Kernot, who was apparently travelling to
Australia without a wife. Someone like Eliza Vivian, perhaps, a cousin or sister, might have been
travelling with him. She also had two children. It would not be the ship's last burial at sea.
The following day was 'a very glorious warm day.' It was 65° fahrenheit in the shade; white
clouds floated in the azure sky. The Portuguese island of Madeira was sighted on the port side
of the ship, about 20 miles away. A few whales swam lazily by the ship, their size and spouting
attracting the admiration of the passengers.
The Lady McNaghten was now two weeks out from Plymouth, by which time a kind of
normality, and shipboard routines, wouid have been well established. It seems she was roughly
following the Great Circle route, leaving Madeira, and then the Canary Islands, well to the east
and making for the mid-Atlantic - although Great Circle sailing was not fully tested until that year
(1850), when the Constance, thus sailing, reached Adelaide in 77 days.
John Fenwick, on the Lightning, a clipper, wrote in 1854: 'Daily life on board begins about 5.0
am and sometimes sooner.' Mereweather never mentions any details of daily routines, nor even
any item about the other cabin passengers or about living and dining with them. His diary entries
are generally rather sparse. But shipboard routines must have been similar, depending on the
weather and the size of the ship.
Decks were swabbed, or washed, first thing, and if it was calm enough, male passengers came
up from below with wash-basins and pails to shave and wash as best they could on deck and
get some air. Modesty prevented women from doing so; and some, especially in steerage, never
washed their hair or bodies or changed their clothes for more than a month.
Those who had cabins performed their ablutions therein, with difficulty and one at a time. Sea-
soap was used when private supplies gave out and a salt-water sponge bath. Water was for
drinking, boiled, as it tended to become contaminated. When it rained, steerage passengers
rushed out on deck to gather what they could from sails and in buckets to drink, and with which
to wash themselves, their clothes and pots and pans.
John Fenwick: 'From six until after eight there is a goodly number [of men] washing themselves
on both sides of the deck house. The fires in the galley being lighted before five, many messes
are busy making stirabout or hemty pudding from six till seven... At half past seven the chiefs of
each mess go with every variety of tin pail and pan to receive their quantity of boiled coffee.'
Intermediate and steerage passengers ate at the central dintng-tables between their cabins in
shifts from half past seven, being served tea or coffee
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and biscuits, gruei and perhaps some ham and aggs. Cabin passengers had more lavish fare and
more choice. But for all, dinner was generally about half past twelve and tea at four or six. Ale,
wine, port or brandy, which had to be paid for, could be drunk at both these meals. Duties, like
cooking and cleaning, were shared by the women and married men of each mess; single men
were bad at both.
On the Lady McNaghten there was an unusually !arge number of single men: bachelors and
married men travelling on their own. Apart from the Rev Mereweather, Mr Rogers and Mr
Wildman in cabins under the poop deck, under the main deck were William Craddock, Fred
Nicholl, John Bowden, Thomas Emver, John Ashurst, Robert McKinley, Henry Ridgeweil,
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