Diary of Alexander Turner, 1883-07-20-c. 1883-11-17

 
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The diary refers to the ship's departure from Glasgow, a clash between the captain and one of the crew, the weather, concerts, the sailors' Dead Horse ceremony, the sighting of other ships, the capture of an albatross, storms, a cricket match, injuries to passengers, the dangers of shifting cargoes, the sighting of the Tasmanian coast and later Stradbroke Island and the Queensland coast, porpoises, deaths of children on board the ship, and the arrival at Townsville (23 Oct. 1883).

Owing to an epidemic of measles on the Eastern Monarch, the passengers were kept in quarantine for nearly a month. The later entries refer to Turner's washing-up duties, the monotony of porridge and treacle, fears of a typhoid epidemic, quarantine on Magnetic Island, Indigenous Australians on Magnetic Island, meals, snakes, and the eventual landing at Townsville.

At the end of the diary is a table showing the daily longitude and latitude during the voyage.

Although the authorship of the diary is attributed to Alexander Turner on the first page, at the end it is signed 'Andrew Turner' and there is a photograph with the caption 'Andrew Turner of Oxton, Lauder, Berwickshire'.

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Available for Access.
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Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
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