Journal of a voyage to New Zealand

A manuscript journal, 20 December 1863-10 February 1864 (watermarks 1843, 1844), of a voyage by John Griffith, [of Bangor, Caernarvonshire,] from Gravesend to New Zealand on board the sailing ship The Indian Empire, describing the crew and passengers, the accommodation and rations and daily life on board.
The volume consists of sheets of lined paper, folded in half and stab-stitched together using tarred twine; the text is written lengthways down the page. Griffith describes the 'Dead Horse' ceremony, marking one month at sea (pp. 56-61), the publication, by him, of the first issue of the 'Atlantic Telegraph', a newspaper for the passengers and crew (pp. 62-63, 65), and his twenty-first birthday on the 5 February 1864 (pp. 64, 72); the volume also includes a plan of the cabin in which Griffith was accommodated (pp. 1-2). The Sotheby's and Charles Miller auction catalogues both assert that John Griffith was one of several passengers to have died from scarlet fever during the voyage, hence the abrupt ending of the journal on 10 February, some six weeks before reaching New Zealand; Griffith himself records the death of a passenger on 26 January (p. 61). However, contemporary newspaper reports of The Indian Empire's arrival in Port Lyttelton, Canterbury Province, on 23 March 1864, list a 'Griffiths' amongst the passengers in the second cabin, rather than as one of the passengers to have died on the passage (see for instance 'Shipping Intelligence', Lyttelton Times, 26 March 1864, p. 4). The actual fate of John Griffith is therefore uncertain.

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Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 139; 15 November 2012; 006338038.

Title based on contents.

Also included is a modern, [?late 20 cent.], transcript of the journal, printed and bound as a booklet (33 pp.), which was purchased with the manuscript.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 24033D.

Text

One leaf removed between pp. 15 and 16; upper end of pp. 60-61 cut away.

April 2013.

Description compiled by Rhys Morgan Jones;

Usual copyright laws apply.

It is supposed that the journal was returned to John Griffith's family in North Wales by Andrew Black, captain of The Indian Empire; it was previously sold at auction by Charles Miller Ltd, London, 20 April 2011 (lot 124); '£300' (in pencil on p. i).

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales