13

the spring of 1872 and had another spell on shore so I said
to an old mate of mine called John [?Finnie], what do you
say if we give Leith best, and go to Glasgow,and ship for
Australia. All right he says I am your man. So we packed
up our chests and bags, and left Edinburgh Station bound
for Glasgow and arrived at the sailors home on the Broomi-
elaw at Glasgow for the last time to see the soil of Scotland
now in those days in Glasgow before there were so many steamers
a sailor could just take a walk down the banks of the
Clyde and pick his ship, for any part of the world, and you
could always see where the ship was bound to as there was
always a board stuck in the forerigging to let you know
where the ship was bound to and when she sailed, so we
met a sailor coming along on the same errand as oursleves
and asked him if he knew of any ship wanting a crew
bound to Australia or anywhere near it. Yes he says I
am just going down now to a ship that is bound to
Dunedin to hand in my last ships discharge. So
we thought that was near enough to Australia. So when
we got alongside we found she was a large fullrigged
ship belonging to Patrick Henderson a large shipowner
in Glasgow and she was laid on for passengers for
Dunedin New Zealand, so we asked the chief officer if he
had engaged all his crew. Ne he says just pass your last
ships discharges to me, and be at the shipping office a
week later so after a week we signed on for three years
so we got on board an got everything ready for sea
then towed down for the Tail of the Bank where we
dropped our anchor and lay there until we got our
passengers on board, and the next day the same tug boat
that towed us down from Glasgow brought our passengers
alongisde and a fine lot they were all cloth weavers
from a place called Gallashields [Galashiels] as a company from there
was starting a cloth manufacturing at a place called Mos-
geil [Mosgiel] and as soon as we had them all on board. Also
there (sic) luggage. Then the cry was from the chief officer for
all hands on deck and get underweigh (sic) and heave