The Shalimar - and a challenging list of passengers

Before I delve much further into the Shalimar’s passenger list, let’s have a look at the ship. 

The Shalimar was built in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1854 and registered at 1,402 tons. She was named after the Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir and was owned by the White Star Line. When she sailed into the Waitemata Harbour a few days before Christmas 1859, she was the largest passenger ship yet seen there. On that voyage the Captain was J R Brown. He and the Chief Officer, Mr Cameron, seem to have been well liked, and whether through the doctor’s ability or thanks to the overall good health of the passengers pre-embarkation and the medicines they brought along to treat themselves, only three deaths occurred during the 101-day voyage. 

After a short stay in Auckland, the ship sailed to Wellington and then on across the Pacific to Callao, in Peru. She subsequently made further voyages to Australia and New Zealand before being sold to various other owners.

There were 214 passengers on that 1859 voyage. Over half of them – 126 – were English, with 60 Irish and 28 Scottish. These are the statistics provided in the NZ newspapers when the ship arrived. However, there was an Hungarian on board too, travelling cabin-class. His intention was to see if NZ was a suitable destination for Hungarian settlers. As he had been living in Liverpool prior to sailing to New Zealand, maybe he was registered as English. As a passenger he highlights the challenges presented by reading a newspaper’s list of incoming passengers: in the Daily Southern Cross and New Zealander articles announcing the Shalimar’s arrival in Auckland, there is a Mr Guly among the cabin passengers. Searches for any further references to someone in NZ with that surname drew a blank. Luckily, in a February 1860  article, when reporting on how things were going with his fellow passengers in Northland, Peter William Melling, another cabin passenger, wrote of a Mr Guylai. I realised this must be Mr Guly and have since seen his name spelt as Gyallay, Gyulay and Guylay – this last, when he married in Auckland in 1861 had become De Guylay! However, for all the variations and a certain amount of intrigue surrounding him – was he really a Count? – he has been easier to trace that the five SMITHs – Christopher, Isaac, Ralph, George and William or the passengers whose names aren’t listed at all, like cabin passenger Miss PATON or steerage passengers S YOUNG, J RILEY, J FULTON and Mr DAVIS. If you are descended from these or any other SHALIMAR passengers, I would love to hear from you.