A - Arrival

It is Family History month in Australia and New Zealand, so I have given myself a challenge. (Hope I can do it) Here is the start:

Auckland 17 September 1862.

What sight greeted the passengers on board the Hanover ? One hundred and ten days after their departure from the East India Docks in London on May 29^th, they anchored off Fort Britomart at 10pm.[1] Did the passengers stay below deck ? Or had they ventured out into the night to see ? But what was there to see ?

There would be no blazing lights from buildings and the port as there is today. Auckland was a city just beginning, not much more than 20 years old. The capital though and with a fast growing population. At the census on December 1, 1861 the population of European settlers in the entire province (which at this time included Mongonui; Bay of Islands; Marsden; Northern Division; City of Auckland East; City of Auckland West; Parnell; Newton; Pensioner Settlements; Onehunga; Franklin; Raglan) was 24,420.[2] By the next census on December 1, 1864 it would swell 42,132.[3] The 345 voyagers on board the Hanover numbering just some of the many shiploads of eager free settlers making their way across the world to the new colony.[4]

A city, not large by any means or bustling and crowded like the last they saw in England. Larger though, than the market town they had left behind in Somerset.

I imagine my great-great-grandparents and their fellow passengers, trying to settle their children to sleep for what would be their last night on board in cramped conditions. In an area not much larger than a double bed, packed with their belongings and themselves, where they endured rolling seas and by all accounts some weeks of heavy gales on their voyage.[5] My family on board were my great-great-grandparents and six boys aged 3-12, four of whom along with their father had celebrated birthdays during the voyage. Imagine the excitement levels of those boys. Did their parents have any misgivings ? What were their expectations ? Did they worry that they may have made a poor choice ? Did they have a back up plan ? My great-great-grandmother must have felt some relief knowing that in a few short hours they would all have a little more space, although that sudden loss of confinement could bring some worries of its own with a group of inquisitive, adventurous boys.

Looking west over Official Bay, Auckland, showing trading vessels in the bay, and St Paul's Anglican Church and Fort Britomart in the background. Photograph taken in 1864 by Daniel Manders Beere.[6]

I suspect they were all up with their fellow passengers at daybreak to see what they could see. Accommodation had been secured for the travellers at the government immigration barracks in Freeman’s Bay.[7] There I imagine, there would have been much socialising and chatter with those in their party who had arrived ten days earlier on the Matilda Wattenbach. Comparing voyage experiences and acquainting themselves with the fledgling city; discussing the plans to reach their final destination. Were they perturbed to learn of the unrest amongst their fellow Non-Conformist settlers ?

It was spring. A time heralding new beginnings. But would Albertland be the new beginning they hoped for ?

---

[1] 'Maritime Record', New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1725, 20 September 1862, p.3.

[2] Statistics New Zealand, 'The New Zealand Official Year Book 1864', https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1864-statistics-NZ/1864-statistics-NZ.html#idsect2_1_119, Accessed 31 July 2020.

[3] Statistics New Zealand, 'The New Zealand Official Year Book 1864'.

[4] 'Maritime Record', New Zealander, p.3.

[5] 'Maritime Record', New Zealander, p.3.

[6] Official Bay, Auckland. Ref: 1/2-096113-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. https:natlib.govt.nz/records/23205636

[7] New Zealand Geographic, 'The PromisedLand', https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-promised-land/, Accessed 31 July 2020.