The Irish standard., 1886-12-04
GALWAY TO THE ANTIP0DES.
An Interesting Account Of Sea
Voyage from the Emerald Isle
to Australia.
SOME OF THE ADJUSTMENTS
Passengers Participate in to Pass Away the
Time While on Board Ship-Vocal and
Instrumental Music, Etc., Etc


We find the following description of
a voyage to Australia in one of our
Galway exchanges, to wfich it was
sent by Mr.. Francis Mcdonnell: We
sailed on Saturday, June S, from
Gravesend. London, and landed in the
city of Brisbane on Saturday, July 24.
1886, which just left us seven weeks on
sea, and which is reckoned very quick
passage. We embarked in the Vacca, a
powerful steamer of 1000 tons burden,
commanded by Captain Morris. We
numbered about 600 passengers and 100
of a crew, nearly all colored men and
very good sailors. The ship was di-
vided into four parts. All immigrants.
full paid. assisted and free, slept be-
tween decks and messed there also.
Every eight or ten were placed in a
mess with one in charge. In the fore
part of the ship all the single men were
located; in the middle, the married
people (conples) with their children t"
the age of 12 years; in the aft or Stern
all the single women were located, and
saloon deck, ships officers and saloon
passengers. Persons in these divisions
were not allowed to hold any commune
cation with one another during the
whole voyage; single men were never
allowed to go into married or single
women's divisions, and they the same,
except brothers. fathers or mothers
who had sisters or daughters on hoard;
they were permitted to visit them
every Sunday for one hour.
THE RULES WERE MOST STRICT,
and should mention that any infringe
'nent of them was visited with severe
punishment. So much for the rules;
now for the passengers. We ehad about
forty single Irishmen on board. all
Catholics; about the same number OF
Irish girls, and also great number OF
English, Welsh, Scotch and Germans.
The food supplied to the full-pald and
assisted passengers was, with very
slight exceptions, the same, the differ
ence being scarcely noticeable. The
food was fair-for breakfast one pint
of coffee, with condensed milk, about
six ounces of bread, alternated with
jam or butter, and also some mornings
rice boiled, etc., in addition to the
above; for dinner almost every day we
had SOUP, potatoes and timed meats.
Pork was given on Fridays. which
nearly all of us never eat; twice week
Lunch was served after dinner which
was very nice; for supper one pint of
tea, five or SIX ounces of bread. extra
some days, cheese, biscuits, molasses
and lime juice. Bread was hardly ever
more than one day old; the only thing
many had to complain of was, the po-
ta,oes were rather scarce and very
often black. Icannot speak of the IA
tions of the free passengers. We had
nearly always enough of fresh wafer,
except during the great heat. You
know cleanliness is one of the strictest
rules on board, so every place was
scrupuIously cleaned every day. Now
for small
ACCOUNT OF THE ADJUSTMENTS.
After being few days out, a band, fife
and drum, was formed from among the
emigrahts; a volunteer corps cricket
club, aid the library opened OH certain
days to give out books. TIE ban used
to play ON deck; nearly all the members
of it we're Irishmen; so l tell you we
were not slack in na.ional airs. How
many fellows heart would rise when
he heard the martial notes of God
Save Ireland" ''O'Donnell Aboo" ar
some other grand Irish air; it was
bringing me back to the time [ heard
them played in the old town of Galway.
felt proud to hear those tunes played
even under the Union Jack that f1oated
aloft; it shows, no matter whether ON
sea or land, Irishmen are heart and
soul true to the memory of the past
true to theirmotherlanl. Certain days
| in the week we're laid out for each game.
The deck used to be netted over ON
cricket days. We had during the vOy-
| age two concerts, in. regular grand
sLyle; nearly all the artists were saloon
passeng rs and ships officers; the,
were got up very nicely and afforded
good amusement. We had also ath-