As February 1836 drew to a close two of the three South Australian Company ships, the John Pirie and the Duke of York, left Gravesend at the mouth of the Thames and began their careful navigation of the English Channel towards the Atlantic Ocean. Poor Captain Morgan continued to be very anxious about his wife, who was due to give birth any time. He hoped desperately that both she and their child would survive the’trying hour'(Labour, childbirth) and that their existing child would not be left motherless. But very soon he had other worries. The Channel was a capricious stretch of water at the best of times and this was no exception. Overnight on 29 February (1836 was a leap year) both ships were caught in a ferocious storm. With waves breaking over the deck, the vessel ‘very laboursome’ and all the passengers sick, Captain Morgan ran for the shelter of the Isle of Wight, where the Duke of York rode out the rest of the storm secured by two anchors. John Pirie was not so lucky as the following extracts make clear. The author of this account is unknown, although he seems to have been a crew member, responsible for the vessel’s livestock. Read on to discover how these two vessels, their suffering passengers and their animals, fared in the storm.
Error thrown
Call to undefined function ereg()