DEPARTURE OF EMIGRANTS FROM PLYMOUTH
A large company of emigrants for Australia left Plymouth
yesterday on board the Hesperides, a very fine newly-built ship, of 1,330 tons register,
classed 100 A 1 (the highest class) at Lloyd's, commanded by Captain Upton.
The Hesperides is the property of Messrs John Patton, jun.,
and Co., of White Lion Court, London, and is chartered by the Government of South
Australia to take out emigrants to Adelaide. She is a full-rigged iron vessel, built
by Messrs Short Brothers, of Sunderland, from whose yard she was launched but a few weeks
ago. She is constructed on a very fine model, and it is believed will be a very fast
sailer.
For the last fortnight the Hesperides, having previously
taken in a general cargo at London, has been lying in Plymouth Sound fitting for her
living freight, under the superintendence of Mr. T. F. Smith, the dispatching officer for
the Agent-General of the Colony.
The married quarters 'tween decks are fitted with the
portable folding berths, for which Mr Johnson, of 38, Canton-street, London, E., is
patentee, and a detailed description of which appeared some months ago in the Western
Morning News. On Mr Johnson's system, it may be remembered, the berths are
arranged fore and aft, and a constant current is air is supplied to them; while at the
same time each married couple have, as it were, a cabin to themselves, and the strictest
privacy is secured. The whole 'tween decks is unusually high, and the arrangements
for the cleanliness and health of the inmates have been most carefully carried out.
Indeed, Captain Stoll, R.N., the Government emigration
officer, after making his final inspection, expressed the most perfect satisfaction with
the ship, and said that he had never seen one better fitted out for the conveyance of
emigrants. The emigrants consist of persons who have assisted or free passages, and
many of them have been selected by the Plymouth agents, Messrs W. T. Weekes and Co., from
the counties of Devon and Cornwall.
The emigrants number in all 396. There are 38 married
couples, 146 single men, 121 single women, 17 boys under 12, 26 girls under 12, and 10
infants. They are under the medical charge of Dr. Blood, surgeon-superintendent of
the ship. An excellent matron has been found for the single women's department in
Mrs Rogers, who has now started her eighteenth voyage in this capacity.
Captain Upton has under his command a promising crew of
forty-seven men. He is in great hope of making the passage to Adelaide in seventy
days. To accomplish this, however, it will be necessary that he should have more
wind than accompanied the starting of the ship.
At half-past one yesterday afternoon the anchor was hove
up, the sailors accompanying their work with the usual merry chorus, and the Volunteer tug
towed the Hesperides as far as the Eddystone, a party
of visitors accompanying the captain on his voyage to that distance, after experiencing
the hospitality of the chief owner, Mr. Patton, jun., in the magnificent saloon with which
the Hesperides is furnished.
The body of emigrants seemed in uncommonly good spirits,
and they appeared already to be falling into their nautical mode of life. If truth
must be told, there was not quite so much gazing after the receding shores of Old England
as is popularly connected with the departure of an emigrant vessel; but in many cases
persons were looking forward to joining friends who have already settled in the
colony.
Many of the girls were already busying themselves with
needlework as they sat on deck in the pleasant sunshine; and in connection with this
occupation it is worthy of note that £138 from the Kelsall Emigration Charity has been
distributed among the party by Mr. W. T. Weekes, thus enabling them before starting to lay
in a stock of clothing material, of which some stood in absolute need. They will
have plenty of time to make it up in their seventy days' passage.
As the vessel passed out of port the Achilles, which is now
lying inside the Breakwater, gave her the customary salute; and when, after some hours
towing, the Eddystone was passed, the Volunteer cast
off the tow rope, and the visitors returned to her, a ringing cheer was sent up by the
passengers, who evidently intended that their final farewell to the old country, as
represented by the steamer and her few passengers, should be a heart one.
It may be interesting to Plymothians to learn that there is
a growing tendency on the part of the emigration authorities, and of shipowners, to
dispatch emigrants from this port.
