Logbook of the ship Margaret, 24 May 1850-09 March 1852

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Logbook of the ship Margaret, kept by the Mate, Jonathon Bennett, on a voyage from Liverpool to San Francisco, Sydney and Bombay, 24 May 1850 – 9 March 1852.

The logbook was presumably written up each day from a deck log. Bennett usually signed the daily entries. While at sea, there were two hourly entries recording speed, course and winds, while the position of the ship was recorded each day. The entries in the 'Remarks' column are mostly of a routine nature: the weather, winds, the seas, sail changes, occupations of the crew. The daily entries while in port are very brief, referring to the loading or unloading of cargo, ballast and casks of water, and work preparing the ship for sea.

Among the less routine entries was the battering that the ship received during a hurricane off the west coast of America (16 Dec. 1850), subsequent charges of disobedience against crew members, the captain's fears of a possible mutiny, desertions of crew members at San Francisco, a boat accident off Clarion Island resulting in the death of one sailor (13 April 1851), further desertions at Sydney, a fight between sailors (24 Sept. 1851), and the employment of lascars at Bombay.

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