BRITISH
QUEEN - Foreign going barque (‘emigrant ship’ to Australia) 1852-53
Source: TNA: PRO:
BT 98/3814
Schedule
A
BRITISH QUEEN - Registered in Liverpool on 6th December
1852, of 569 tons
‘Date and place of
first signature of agreement including name of shipping office’ was 8h
December 1852, Liverpool Sailors Home
‘The several
persons whose names are hereto subscribed hereby agree to serve on board the
said Ship in the several capacities expressed in their respective names on a
voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne thence if required to any ports and
places in the Pacific Ocean, Indian or China Seas or where freight may offer,
with liberty to call at a port for orders, and until her return to a final port
of discharge in the United Kingdom or for a term not to exceed three years.
And the said Crew to conduct themselves in an orderly,
faithful, honest and sober manner, and to be at all times diligent in their
respective duties, and to be obedient to the lawful commands of the said
master, or of any Person who shall lawfully succeed him, and to their Superior
Officers, in everything relating to the Ship and the Stores and Cargo thereof,
whether on board, in boats or on Shore: in consideration of which service to be
duly performed, the said Master hereby agrees to pay to the said Crew as wages
the sums against their names respectively expressed, and to supply them with
provisions according to the annexed Scale: And it is hereby agreed, That any Embezzlement,
or wilful or negligent destruction of any part of the Ship’s Cargo or Stores
shall be made good to the owner out of Wages of the Person guilty of the same:
And if any Person enters himself as qualified for a duty which he proves
incompetent to perform, his wages shall be reduced in proportion to his
incompetency: And it is also agreed, That the regulations authorized by the
Board of Trade, which in the paper annexed hereto are numbered 1-22
Are adopted by the
parties hereto., and shall be considered embodied in this Agreement: And it is
also agreed, That if any Member of the Crew considers himself to be aggrieved
by any breach of the Agreement or otherwise, he shall represent the same to the
Master or Officer in charge of the Ship in a quiet and orderly manner, who
shall thereupon take such steps as the case may require: And it is also agreed
That no grog will be allowed’.
Her Master was
Henry William Plain (cert. no OC 7324).
Abraham Hooks from ?Workington?, was Mate, having signed on 9th
December 1852.
The 2nd
Mate was William Fothergill, from the Isle of Man and signed on same as the
Mate.
William Harris, 3rd
Mate, from Bermondsey, signed on 13th December 1852.
Crew also
consisted of:-
1 carpenter, 1
purser & steward, 1 steward, 1 passenger’s steward, 9 seamen and 1 ordinary
seaman
Substitutes for
other men (not mentioned above) already signed on and deserted or negotiated
off again:-
1 ordinary seaman,
1 passenger’s cook & seaman and 1 cook
Apprentices - four
in number (all indentured in Liverpool)
Crew born:-
Airth, Dundee, Kirkubright,
Whitehaven, Lancaster, Liverpool (3), Thetford, Hull (2), Clifton,
Wexford,
?Trieste?, Jamaica and Singapore.
Pay:-
As per normal the
master’s pay is not shown. The Mate was on £5 10s per month, 2nd Mate
on £4 and the 3rd Mate £2 10s, with £1 10s being advanced in cash.
The Carpenter earned £5 10s per month, the Steward £3 10s, the Passengers’
Steward £3, the Passengers’ Steward and Cook £3, Seamen £3 and Ordinary Seamen
£1 10s.
N.B. Only one other crew member had an advance of pay.
There were no allotments
Standard
clause plus table on these schedules:-
‘Scale of
provisions to be allowed and served out to the crew during the voyage’
|
Bread: |
1 lb. per day |
|
Beef: |
1 1/2 lbs. on
Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays |
|
Pork: |
1 1/4 lbs. on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays |
|
Flour: |
1/2 lb. on
Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays |
|
Peas: |
1/3 pint on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays |
|
Tea: |
1/8 oz. per day |
|
Coffee: |
1/2 oz. per day |
|
Sugar: |
1/2 oz. per day |
|
Water: |
3 quarts per day |
Substitutes:-
‘1 oz. of coffee,
or cocoa, or chocolate, may be substituted for 1/4 oz. of tea. Molasses for sugar, the quantity of to be one-half more. 1
lb. of potatoes, or yams, 1/2 lb. flour or rice, 1/3 pint peas, or 1/4 pint of
barley, may be substituted for each other. When fresh meat is
issued, the proportion to be 2 lbs. per man per day, in lieu of salt meat,
flour, rice and peas. Beef and pork, may be substituted each for the
other.
N.B. The Board of Trade do not interfere as to the
quantities of provisions to be supplied’.
Schedule
C - Account of Crew
Date of departure
9th January 1853
2nd
Mate, discharged at Bombay 13th October 1853 - Ability VG and
Conduct VG
Master, Mate, 3rd
Mate, one steward, one seaman and two ordinary seamen discharged at Liverpool
on 2nd May 1854
2nd
Mate " Bombay 13 OCT 53 - Ability VG Conduct VG
All the rest
deserted (including two apprentices) in Melbourne: two on 7th May
1854 and the rest the day before. This was during the Australian gold rush and
at least one seaman, Magnus Bruce Johnson of Shetland, is known to have gone
prospecting.
Second
sheet of Schedule A
‘Agreement by
right of an Act by the ‘Governor General of India in Council and numbered
number XXXVIII of 1850’ - from India (in this case Bombay) to UK, where next
voyage was to take her and finally returning to India.
According to this
27 (in total) signed on. mostly native ‘mussalmen’. Seven from Chittagong, five
from Penang, four from Calcutta and one each from various other places such as
Bangalore and Goa. There were also four others.
Henry Hargreaves,
27, of Lancashire; and Robert Smith, 25 of Lanark. The latter was a seaman, but
the former was a landsman. Both were signed on for discharge at Liverpool.
Also, there were
two other landsmen, Michael Atkins of Cork; and Hugh Collins of Chester. It is
not clear whether they were actually passengers who were ‘working their
passage’.
Signed statement
... certified that (one of the native seamen) remained ‘at St. Helena for
hospital treatment. St. Helena Police Office 17th February 1854’
Second
sheet of Schedule C
The numbers signed
on do not tally - stated as 24.
Date of signing on
mostly 3rd November 1853, then 4th, 10th, 14th
and 23rd (twenty-four men in all)
Of the newly
signed on, three remained onboard on reaching Liverpool, most were discharged
(said to be by mutual consent according to a signed note on the Schedule A on
18th May 1854), two had deserted even before sailing from Bombay and
six died during the voyage (including the Irishman)