Shipping transit times

[Skoosh]

For an insight into conditions aboard emigrant ships see R.LStevenson's "An Amateur Emigrant", which you can read this online. Stevenson travelled from the Clyde to New York but it can't have differed greatly from Oz apart from the duration.

Skoosh.

[Jaznjjj]

Sydney to the U.K. which ship?

This is a mystery in my family history research in that a soldier discharged from the 11th Devonshire Guards in Sydney on the 31st October, 1848 arrives in South Australia on the Childe Harold from Plymouth on the 2nd June, 1849 - total elapsed time 214 days.  The Childe Harold left Plymouth on the 23rd February, 1849, from London on the 17th February, 1849. The time frame is tight - or maybe impossible - the fastest passage time for that route I was able to find was 90 days giving them turnaround time in the U.K. of only 21 days IF they left Sydney immediately after the discharge from the regiment and if they were on board a very fast clipper ship. Two ships only, Ganges and Seringapatam, left Sydney for the U.K. 8th and say 14th November, 1848.  I haven't yet found their arrival times in the U.K. and I don't know whether they were fast ships. 

The documentation for the voyage of the Childe Harold and the arrival of the family in South Australia seems to be in order BUT there is a problem with the timing.   Jennifer

[thetowers]

How do you actually know he went to England,  and back ?

[cando]

I wonder who were the witnesses on this parish record for his daughter's marriage on 14 Oct 1848?

Marriage NSW
441/1848 V1848441 78    
SIBLEY Edward T    
BRUCE Maria
District QC = Presbyterian Sydney Scots Church (Pitt St)

This family researcher writes that Richard BRUCE and family embarked Sydney on the CHILDE HAROLD [from Plymouth] for Adelaide. 
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~garter1/bruceric.htm

The CHILDE HAROLD did not go to Sydney.

The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List  14 Jul  1849
The William Hyde brings the passengers for this port who came out by the Royal Sovereign and the Childe Harold to Adelaide.-Herald.

Cheers
Cando

[barryd]

I was once looking at a passenger in the early 1900's and the "Concorde" of British Isles/Australia travel then was leaving a major port and sailing to New York. New York to California by train and then another ship to Sydney from California. He was a businessman so did not have to worry about the cost. 

[Jaznjjj]

That journey to G.B. and back has been cause for concern on my part for a number of reasons;  first and foremost is the time elapsed between departure from Sydney and arrival in South Australia which is extraordinarily tight for even the fastest ship.  Their arrival on the Childe Harold seems solid and I have searched and found no record at this stage that the Childe Harold came into S.A. via Sydney or Tasmania.  I continue to gather data into a huge file hoping one day to find an answer.  I believe the documentation for the Childe Harold was destroyed when a storage area was flooded so the information about the arrival of the family comes from a shipping  article in a newspaper. 

Can't lay my hands on the marriage information for Maria (married Sibley) at the moment but at the Tasmanian Archives I located marriage information for Ruth (married Thorne) on Norfolk Island with consent of parents - witnesses Maria Bruce and others (not Richard Bruce).  The other daughter, Elizabeth, married in 1861 after the death of her father.  That marriage was witnessed by her brother, Richard Hamilton Bruce and one other unknown (to me) individual.     J

[cando]

The average length of the voyage from England to Australia 'under canvas' from 1840 to 1860 was one hundred and eleven days while the shortest voyage on record was eighty three days. 

Cando

[Jaznjjj]

Thank you for that.  I've found it more difficult to find travelling times going in the other direction.  If I use that figure of 83 days the timing is still very tight, with turnaround in the U.K. perhaps a month at most but likely to be much shorter.   Possible - but unlikely though it's hard to argue with the Childe Harold information.   J

[cando]

http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchform.aspx?id=49
The CHILDE HAROLD is not listed as arriving in NSW.

Richard BRUCE and family were unassisted passengers and prior to 1852 it was not compulsory for the names of unassisted passengers to be recorded on the ship's manifest.
 
The survival rate of passenger lists in South Australia is poor and I doubt even if the manifest has survived, it would have given you any further information than detailed in the newspaper.

Cando