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been an emigrant from Liverpool. He seems to have taken the opportunity to visit Van Diemen's
Land and do some shopping before rejoining his family in Adelaide. For a Mr, Mrs and Miss
Cogiin are listed among those who departed from Adelaide on the Sea Queen on 25 June.
On 24 June, John Mereweather noted that although it was midwinter 'yet it is a lovely day, with
a hot sun, as in August with us.'
He went on: 'Transferred my effects on board the Sea Queen, Captain
W
, a very fine barque, originally intended for the opium trade... Before
starting I took tea with my good friend, the surgeon of the ship which brought me
from London... At night one of our passengers, who was very drunk, passing from one ship to
the other, fell between the two, and was drowned. His brother, who was, if possible, more
intoxicated, abused the captain in unmeasured terms for his want of proper precautions. All was
confusion on board the two ships. Lights were waving to and fro amidst the baggage and down
in the holds; boats were lowering to endeavour to find the drowning man, women were
screaming and crying, men were shouting and swearing, whilst in the midst was the brother,
sobering by degrees, mingling strong hysterical sobs with his imprecations. The body was never
found.'
Mereweather doesn't give the man's name. But as he had a brother, and is 'one of our
passengers', we may surmise that he was either James or J Lawrence (John or Joseph?), and
would have left two or five children fatherless. Or that he was W Andrews, perhaps brother of
John Andrews who had a wife.
This death would have unsettled all those departing on the Sea Queen and seemed like a bad
omen. But Mereweather makes no further account of it, nor says much about the departure on
25 June except: 'We were towed down to the lighthouse at daybreak, and anchored there. The
poor people were huddled below without comfort, and almost without, decency. Provisions for
a fortnight are put on board.' That took three days.
There were 92 passengers on the Sea Queen, including the children, but not ail those listed at
Adelaide on 17 June as being bound for Port Phillip left Adelaide on the Sea Queen. This may
have been because all the passengers listed in the Melbourne Argus on arrival there are classed
as intermediate - apart from two cabin passengers. Presumably those who had travelled as
steerage on the Lady McNaghten could not afford the extra cost of being upped to intermediate
and would have continued onto Port Phillip as steerage passengers on another ship, not the Sea
Queen.
Those who now travelled onwards with the six Honeycombes on the Sea Queen were the Rev
Mereweather and Mr George Rogers (minus Mr Wildman) in the cabin. Classed as
intermediate were Mr and Mrs Andrews; Mr and Mrs Gee and two sons; Mr and Mrs Ball; Mr
and Mrs Dunn; Mr and Mrs Cadwallader and Master Cadwaflader; Mr and Mrs Richardson,
now with three children; and Mr and Mrs Lawrence, now credited with six children.
As there was also a Lawrence among the single men, who might have been a teenager, this
would account for all the chiidren (seven in all) who are iisted as arriving at Adelaide. The
disappearance of the other Mr and Mrs Lawrence may be explained by the fact that he was the
brother who was drowned and that his widow remained in Adelaide, hoping his body would be
found, while her children continued on their journey with the other Mr and Mrs J Lawrence.
The Silvers, Brinsmeads, Davises, Wrays, and Jacob Kernot, who were all scheduled to leave
the Lady McNaghten, along with some single men, did so. So did Harriet Hill and Eliza Vivian.
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