We are now within 400 miles of the Cape of Good Hope, the
passengers are all expectation…
You ask me to describe my chum Mr Williams
– well then – he is middle sized – wears a black wig – has red
eye lashes – he is very kind to me indeed as well as to everybody
else – in the next cabin is Mr Thomas though a very goodnatured
man, is nevertheless very hot-tempered; though I have never felt
his wrath he does not appear to be liked very well by the Mediterranean
Passengers (as the steerage folks call us). Mr Everard and
family come next. Mr Everard is a very nice quiet man,- but his
wife just the contrary – the next is Mr and Mrs Lewis they are
very quiet, but Mrs Lewis does not appear to be very respectable
– the next is a Mr Ward and Mr Deacon – Mr Ward is a very
goodnatured, humorous man of about 30 years of age rather
corpulent – he is a lawyer – Mr Deacon is a rather old man very
changeable and fidgetty – Mr Nantes and Mr Skipper are the
next. Mr Nantes is a quiet young man – Mr Skipper is a person
I don’t know very much about on account of his taking his meals
in the 1 st Cabin.

19th Septr Mr Slater, I have found him to be very kind to
me he has taught me many useful things – he and Mr Williams
I think are my greatest friends – he is so very much liked by our
cabin passengers that he sleeps and very often takes his meals in
our cabin – he is a very different kind of person to what he was
when I saw him at Gravesend, he has always a pleasant word for
everybody – I am invited every Thursday (by Captn Duff &
Wife) to dine in the 1 st cabin – an honour which very few are
allowed…
We manage to make bread now though we
have to make the yeast – there are several ways of making it;
but Mr Williams’ proves to be the best. We have five messes in
the second cabin for I am sorry to say they very much disagree.
Give my love to all dear friends – I should have written to Kate,
but I am pressed for time – how is she and how is the baby – has
it been christened yet – by the by there has been a child born
on board by a Mrs Parcel a steerage passenger. Mrs Brown was
proposing that something should be done for him and I think so
too…

20th Septr
…We had no shaving on crossing the line – We
passed it in the night at about 12 o’clock – Some of the most
learned affirm they felt the shiver on its entry to the Southern
Hemisphere. All the lights in the ship except the [tooltip color=”grey” text=”Ships were equipped with magnetic compasses that were kept on deck in a binnacle that could be illuminated at night by means of a lamp.”] Binnacle lamp [/tooltip],
are all put out at ten o’clock at night…