Tuesday 29 April 2008

Diary 30.4.1883

Monday April 30

Got up and had some arrowroot made by the cook, we had a long time to wait for the porridge and coffee this morning, there is no blowing the fire here all you have got to do is wait and keep your temper. Ruth E, has got the prickly heat a little which almost heal and lumps all over her arms and neck. Emily Ann has it a little also. The weather is getting colder and more pleasant, its very nice on deck. When the sky appears full of stars and the moon is in full it’s a grand sight though a dreary one.

Monday 28 April 2008

Diary 29.4.1883


Sunday 29

A very fine morning but very little wind, breakfast very soon porridge and fatty cake, no nice cooked bacon on a Sunday now, but we shall make up for it when we get to the promised land, there was a church service held today the Doctor leading as before. Almost a dead calm this afternoon and very hot.

Sunday 27 April 2008

Diary 28.4.1883


Saturday 28


We did not get up too soon as we were both sick but it has passed off a little this afternoon. I do not know when we were going to get over the sickness, as soon as it is rough we are sick again. It is a very fine day again, I have been making fatty cakes this morning, the weather is fine and there’s still good wind. Lat. 12.14S Long. 30.25W. The distance run 240 miles.

Saturday 26 April 2008

Unshelved again

Diary 27.4.1883


Friday 27

Got up soon because the boxes had to be got up so we were all very jolly. Bartle’s (Bartle Hutton was Emily’s brother) box was a great surprise the two packets of cocoa came in at the right time we were much in want of some, and the maderia cake and plum quite set Emily up. All things considered it was a real good treat, there is a good wind today the distance run 230 miles. When we had done with our boxes I was very sick all afternoon went to bed very soon.


The ship’s course from Glasgow past the Cape Verde Islands

Friday 25 April 2008

Diary 26.4.2008

Thursday 26




Very fine morning we had our breakfast downstairs then came up and stayed up all day, we always get to one end of the vessel it is called the Bradford end, we had a meeting and were singing hymns all the evening, it passed the time on a bit, it is five weeks today since we sailed. There is going to be a concert tonight on the poop, we are all invited it is given by the young women we are favoured in getting to go on the poop it is kept for the young women. I wish we were at our journey’s end I am quite tired out of this life nothing to do but sew and read. We do not get on as fast as we should like, we ought to have been at the Cape by now but they say we shall be three or four weeks yet before we get to the Cape. There is a man and woman and boy from Otley Read called Mr & Mrs Shackleton, she is Mr Print’s sister (younger) in Carlisle Street. We are only going slow today distance run 100 miles. Lat. 5.54S Long. 26.16W.

Thursday 24 April 2008

Diary 25.4.1883


Wednesday 25

Very wet morning we had to have our breakfast downstairs, porridge and tea and toast. I get the cook to toast for me I have to tip him to get it done. But I am very glad to say it has taken up fine again so we have had our dinner on deck, pork and tea and bread. We have made four fatty cakes this morning for our tea we cannot eat the bread without some meat on it, it is so very sour.You would laugh to see us all camping on deck with our plates and tins all on our knees and when we are just going to drink the vessel will go on one side and we spill it down on us, and our clothes are all covered with tar with sitting on the deck, we bought two buffits (could be buffets – lap trays or writing tables) in Glasgow but they are not much use they slip about with the rocking of the vessel. John Edwin is a deal better today I hope he will continue to do so. People keep saying I have plenty to do for him but I do not care if he was only well. I am kept going with Emmeline and him.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Diary 24.4.1883


Tuesday 24


A wet morning porridge and tea and toast for breakfast, I have got friends with the cook so he will toast a bit of bread for me and bake me cakes, we made a pie for dinner and two fatty cakes for our tea. I am very glad to say John Edwin is still improving every day, you would be surprised if you had to see him now he is so very thin but I think he will be better when we get where it is a little colder. We often wonder how you are all getting on at home and wish we could just pop in and see you all, (like many of their generation they lived in close proximity to their extended family – brother Huttons lived in Elmsall Street & Lumb Lane, a Foster brother in Lily Street and John Edwin’s parents in Butterfield Row, all within a few hundred metres of one another) if we ask Emmeline where her Grandma and her Auntie is she says they are gone, she can talk very nicely now, she goes to her Dada and says “Bless Dada my Dada” it just suits him.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Diary 23.4.1883


Monday 23

Splendid morning got up and washed some clothes in rain water but before I could get them dry it began to rain, it came down in torrents as they say, it comes on very quick, when it begins there is a rush down below with all the things. We take a can up in the morning with knives and forks and spoons so we have not to keep going downstairs, some days we do not go down at all until I go to put Emmeline to bed then I go up again for a bit, it is seldom she goes to sleep in the daytime so she goes in good time at night, she is running about all day playing with the other children. (pictured are the ‘B spoons’ probably given to Ruth- Emily’s mother whose maiden name was Bartle - and passed down through the female generations since)

Monday 21 April 2008

Diary 22.4.1883



Sunday 22


48 miles a fine morning, John Edwin did not get up till dinner time then it began to rain we had to go below again. Emmeline is very cross this week she is not so well. I hope she will soon be better tempered because there is plenty of crying without her, there is such a lot of children.
They caught a shark today it was not such a big one, they killed it on deck and some of the men cooked the tail and were eating it but I would not taste it looked so nasty when they were killing it. We crossed the line on Saturday it is very hot and nearly all the children have what is called the Prickly Heat it is a kind of rash over their body. Emmeline has it but it has not got into her head. Some of them have had their hair cut off for it.

Sunday 22
Fine morning until about 10 o’clock then it began to rain and there was no service all day. John Edwin got up before dinner he is a deal better of himself but his mouth is very sore yet.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Diary 21.4.1883



Saturday 21st


Wet again we shall be obliged to have breakfast below. I do not feel to want any and John Edwin has to have sago gruel, we had boiled beef for dinner and a half a loaf for tea but it is so very sour.

Saturday 19 April 2008

Diary 20.4.1883


Friday 20th


Porridge and coffee and sea biscuits for breakfast today again. John Edwin has been in bed all day today he is very poorly, he is very bad with the dysentery and his mouth and tongue is covered in white blisters, the Doctor is attending him again, he says he is in a very weak state. It has turned out very wet.

Friday 18 April 2008

Found cameras and orphan pictures

People keep finding different uses for the Internet and blogging, check out this website dedicated to reuniting found cameras and orphan photos with their rightful (if slightly embarrassed because they post some of the pictures) owners. If you find a camera or memory card, you can email in a couple of shots off the memory card to the post. This has to be one of the best serendipitious uses of the Net, thankfully too people are interested in returning the items and the memories to their owners :)
Most posts are American but here is an Australian one. "On a recent trip to Fraser Island, I came across a camera washed up on the beach on the eastern side of the Island at a place known as Indian Head. It had a waterproof casing that appeared to be in poor condition...even with a few barnacles attached."

Diary 19.4.1883




Thursday 19


Fine morning, porridge and tea for breakfast, salt pork and soup for dinner, the soup is always so burnt I do not like the soup. Mrs Deacon, a woman from Shipley, found a false tooth in her porridge, she did not want any more that morning. There is a man called Mr Hutton (Hutton was Emily’s maiden name) here and he is from Saltare (Saltaire is in Shipley), he is very ill, they did not expect him to get better but he has got a turn now for the better. It is a month today since we sailed it looks a long time, I am quite tired out of this sort of life. I wish we were at the far end of our journey. Lat. 1.9N Long. 24.20W, distance 80 miles.
Whitby Harbour in 1890s
I have been thinking it will be baking day with most of you today. I wish we had a nice currant tea-cake for our tea, the bread we get here is so very sour, we cannot eat it unless we save some meat from our dinner for our bread at tea time, it is very salt pork and it takes the sour taste off the bread, it will be grand when we can get some good bread. I am very glad they have not asked John Edwin to bake on board, it is very hot he would never have stood it, they have such a small place to bake in the man can hardly turn around in his bakehouse.
Emmeline has got friends with the first mate, he is always giving her sweets, he says he has left a little boy at home about her age. John Edwin is not too well today his mouth is very sore, I hope it will soon be better because he cannot eat anything but his porridge in the morning and a drink of tea at teatime. Lat. 35N Long. 24 run 30 miles.

Thursday 17 April 2008

Diary 18.4.1883


Wednesday 18

Porridge for breakfast, salt beef for dinner. Today is my birthday, (she was 27, both Emily and John Edwin were born in 1856) I have made a fatty cake and a sweetcake, we have 12ozs. of flour to make a suet pudding with so I melt the suet and make a fatty cake of it, but I am sorry to say it began to rain just before tea so we had to go down and get our tea on top of the bed, it is so dark we cannot see if we do not get on the bed. We did not enjoy our tea at all, we get all our meals on deck it is so close down below.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Diary 17.4.1883

Tuesday 17


Porridge again and coffee. I have not had any for three mornings as I did not want Emmeline to have any as she is so bad and if she sees me getting them she wants some too so I made her some rusks and condensed milk, she likes them very well. I get eight eggs and two tins of condensed milk and five rusks every week for Emmeline, if the Doctor sees us eating eggs he says they are for the baby.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Asterix and Obelix

The Asterix books are written by Rene Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. They are junior fiction, but as soon as adults realise what’s inside it’s a fight to see who gets to read them first. Asterix is the hero of more than 30 comic stories. With over 300 million copies sold worldwide, the Asterix books are a global sensation (They’ve sold even more than Harry Potter).
Set in 50BC, these hysterical historical tales follow the adventures of Asterix in the days of the Roman Empire. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans except for one small village of indomitable Gauls who still hold out.
Asterix the hero of these adventures is a shrewd and cunning little warrior who gets his superhuman strength from a magic potion. Obelix is Asterix’s inseparable friend always ready to drop everything to go off on a new adventure so long as there’s wild boar to eat and plenty of fighting. Getafix is the venerable village druid who brews the magic potion, and finally there’s Vitalstatistix the chief of the tribe, brave and hot-tempered, who’s only fear is that he’s afraid the sky will fall on his head tomorrow. But as he says tomorrow never comes.
The true hero of these stories though is someone who normally gets little or no attention, it’s the translators Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. Rene Goscinny was French, so the word plays and puns were French. It was the role of Anthea and Derek to ensure that the topical, cultural and morphological humour and jokes were appreciated, from the simple knockabout jests for quite young children and some distinctly sophisticated humour that depended on literary or artistic allusion for the adult mind.
A recurring joke is the names of people and places: Roman names end with “US” like Centurion Stratocumulus or Encyclopedicus Britannicus, while Britons end with an “X” Anticlimax and Overoptimistix. Then there’s the Roman camps of Aquarium, Laudanum, Totorum and Compendium. Normally Asterix is concerned with protecting his Gaulish village from the legionaires (with the help of a magic potion), but in “Asterix in Britain”, we find the Britons were rather like the Gauls, they had the same language but with some peculiar expressions of their own. And in spite of their gallantry against the Roman invaders, their strange customs were rather a drawback in battle. They insisted on breaking off a 5 o’clock every day to drink hot water, and moreover they stopped fighting 2 days out of every 7. Accordingly Julius Caesar a cunning strategist, decided to fight only at 5 o’clock on weekdays and all day at the weekend, all of Britain was thus occupied.
Then there are the running gags, like the fog that rolls in at different times through the story, the need for a tunnel between Gaul and Britain so people could keep out of the rain and fog; the Britons covering all their food in mint sauce, British institutions: a double-decker chariot, a portable roof to stop the sky falling on their heads (read umbrella). The biggest running gag is the Britons stopping to drink hot water, with a little milk, from dainty cups and saucers. Asterix drops some herbs which he hopes will make magic potion, into the hot water cauldron. The brew gives the warriors courage and the Britons ask Asterix to send back more herbs and they’ll make it their national drink.
What makes these stories really special is that they rely so much on language the nuances, double meanings, etc. – a true feat.

Diary 16.4.1883



Monday April 16


Got up at 7:15 had breakfast on deck of porridge and coffee and toast and eggs, a good wind we have gone 180 miles. Lat. 7.17N Long. 24.5W

Monday 14 April 2008

Diary 15.4.883


Sunday April 15

A cloudy morning looked like rain but turned out a hot day, had breakfast on deck porridge and coffee. Some jam would be very nice we would have brought a dozen pots if we had known before what we know now, butter and bread is not so good on ship board as at home.
We had church service again in the morning and preaching in the afternoon, it never looks like Sunday, the young men were card playing today for money they are a bad lot, went to bed soon not so very well. Distance run 150 miles, Ruth Emmeline has got bowel complaint.

Sunday 13 April 2008

Diary 14.4.1883


Saturday April 14


A very nice morning and a fair wind lots of flying fish and porpoises about, the day is very hot we are getting near the line we shall most likely cross next week. There is to be a concert tonight, the young men get them up they are of a low sort the songs that they sing are disgusting. The sailors caught a flying fish today.

Saturday 12 April 2008

Diary 13.4.183


Friday April 13



Up at 7:15 two ships in sight, a very good and fair wind but noting to boast of only run 115 miles. The single young women had a concert last night on the poop and married were allowed to go, but not the young men. They were very disappointed, the first mate had to keep an eye on them, one of them from Shipley thought he would do something clever and tried to get up, the first mate told him to go down the steps and he would not so knocked him right from the top to the bottom and it served him right, he was in bed almost all day after. The concert passed off well. We spoke a ship today the “Lock Garra” (there was a Loch Garry built in 1875, on the Glasgow to Melbourne run) bound for Melbourne, it left Grenoch at same time as us, it is a larger ship than the “Nairnshire” having four masts. A beautiful moonlight night.

Friday 11 April 2008

Diary 12.4.1883


Thursday April 12


Got up a 7 o’clock, breakfast porridge and coffee, no wind only run 44 miles, Lat. 16.55N Long> 25.48W. San Anotone Island very near it is a mile and a half high, it looks very barren not anything to be seen but sand and rocks, there is a lot of sea birds about.

Interior of Santo Antao


Thursday 10 April 2008

Diary 11.4.1883

Wednesday April 11


Got up at 6:30 had some fried eggs and toast then some porridge and coffee, a very fine morning and nice and hot, the sailors have been working very hard getting all masts into order for the warm weather and putting lightning conductors on the top. A whale passed within two miles of us it was not such a large one, also a shoal of porpoises passed quite near, there was a lot of them and some star fish.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Diary 10.4.1883



Tuesday April 10


Was on deck at 6 o’clock three sails in view low astern and one ahead, a beautiful morning, breakfast of porridge and sugar, Emily Ann went to the ship’s cook and gave him a tip so we got some toast, we shall be able to get some anytime now we made a very good breakfast. Not much wind today only run 104 miles, San Anotone Island in sight (as the most northern of the Cape Verde Islands and at 1,979m high, it would have been the first to appear on the horizon) 62 miles almost ahead, it looks like two black clouds in the distant sky, it is a very hot day the sun is almost shining straight down upon us.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Diary 9.4.1883

Monday April 9

Got up 7:15 breakfast at 8:30 porridge and coffee, a nice day the sun very warm we have now got into the tropics, we are going on slow as the wind is very light. Ruth Emmeline has almost found her sea legs, the first mate keeps giving her spice, and the boatswain keeps carrying her about. Emily Ann is not so very well today (At this time Emily was 3 months pregnant with Mary Ellen) although she has been making fatty cakes this morning. The log today is Lat. 19.58N, Long. 25.1W distance run 143 miles. San Anotone Island 144 miles off.

Monday 7 April 2008

Diary 8.4.1883


Sunday April 8


Got up at 6:30 had enough of the stifling below, as usual corned beef and carrot for dinner. The Doctor held a Church Service this morning on the main deck, there was no sermon, we only sang two hymns “Jesus lover of My Soul” was one, there is going to be a service again this afternoon, we have now got the Trade Winds and expect to keep on going, the distance was today 147 miles run, Lat. 22.19N Long. 33W, San Anotino Island 302 right ahead.

Sunday 6 April 2008

Update on Dim

Here are some before (after the fire & before the demolition) and after (the demolition) pictures of the Dimboola Hotel. The story was in blog post Truly abandoned in Dim back in February.

The shop-front looking to the rear of the block





The Bar area now without a bar, but with a view outside




The stairs now lead no further than the first landing

The pile of rumble is roughly where the kitchen used to be, the dark doorway in the centre is the back of the Bar area, and the staircase is behind the double doorway.