The passengers go their various ways


On 8th December 1859 the SHALIMAR was within sight of Melbourne. Since leaving Liverpool on 13th September they had last sighted land in late October, off the coast of north Africa. Wistfully, one passenger wrote in his diary “We could be in Melbourne tonight if that were our destination.” It was about this time that passengers and crew – those at least whose religions allowed them to gamble – began to place bets on when they would arrive in Auckland: would it be before or after Christmas day?
Amid the excitement of arriving, packing away the books and chattels that had given some comfort during the voyage, fathers and husbands among the passengers would have been anxious perhaps about the great responsibility that they had assumed in bringing their families so far from home to start a new life.
After the SHALIMAR finally anchored in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour during the night of 22nd December, the men folk made their way ashore in rowboats: some to be met by friends or family but most to find rental accommodation until they could buy their land or find jobs. During the voyage a micro-community had formed: some shipboard friendships would last forever.
Hugh WYLIE and Caroline/Teresa SWIFT had married during the voyage. After their arrival in Auckland, Hugh settled in Pukekohe, remarried in 1871 and died there in 1911, but I have found no further mention of Mrs Caroline/Teresa Wylie. Did she die soon after their arrival? Or did she decide that marriage wasn’t for her after all? I would love to find out.
Passengers Charles CLEVELAND and Eliza WEBB were married in Auckland within a week of their arrival and left soon after for Australia. In June 1860 Susan LANGLAND (who had travelled with her brother George, married fellow passenger William MURRAY in Dunedin.
And so the passengers dispersed. Some headed to the Kaipara and beyond, to populate that blank space on the map north of Auckland. These include Mr Andrew and Mrs BONAR, their son, William, and Andrew’s brother, John in the Kaukapakapa district; the WYATT family with Ellen EAMES near Kaiwaka; the McDONALD family, the KIDD family, Peter William MELLING and Albert Gustave GYULAI/GUYLAY in the Taraire Valley near KAEO, and the McKINSTRY family at Puhoi. If your ancestor(s) arrived in New Zealand on the SHALIMAR in 1859 and settled in Northland or elsewhere, it would be great to hear their story.
While some of the would-be settlers didn’t care for New Zealand and sailed away to Australia, others, including P W MELLING, liked it so much that they faced the voyage back Home to find a wife and then returned.


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