William Hodge Diary

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The Life of William Hodge

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and went chief officer of the S.S. Investigator and sailed in her between Port Adelaide and Pt Pirie for twelve months then the Captain of the Investigator took charge of a steamer called the Emu, a steamer that the company bought from the Euro Steamship Company. So I went chief officer of her along with the same captain and ran her to al the south east ports and terminated at Melbourne then used to come back by Warrnambool and Portland and all South East ports towards Port Adelaide. I ran in that trade for two years when our captain left us in Melbourne to take charge of a steamer called the Victorian. She was a steamer that traded between Port Adelaide and Melbourne. So I applied for a berth along with my old captain. But she was full handed. So I was not successful then there was an older hand than me came and took charge of the Emu. And I only ran in her along with this new captain for about twelve months . I found he was a foreigner and simply unbearable so he discharged me in Port Adelaide and that was the last steamer in the Adelaide Steamship Company that I was in. I then wet round to Melbourne and stayed for a bit, and tried to get a berth but unfortunately I did not succeed. So I had to come back home to Port Adelaide belonging to the Adelaide steam ship Co and left in her for Port Pirie as she was stationed up there for towing purposes. I ran in her for a few months when I got charge of a tug called the Nelcebee. I ran in her for some time at Port Pirie and Port Augusta then I was sent on to Port Adelaide with her as her time was up for overhaul. I put her on the slip and cleaned her bottom and painted her, then ran her of the slip to the wharf and got her engines and boiler overhauled then left port Adelaide for Port Pirie. and when I arrived in Port Pirie the Adelaide Tug had to come down to port Adelaide for overhaul and the captain of the Adelaide being laid up at Pt Pirie hospital. I shifted form the Nelcebee to the Adelaide and sailed for Port Adelaide then arrived at Pt Adelaide and put her on the slip

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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used since she was built in Glasgow some years before that was in the year 1881 and the authorities was not nearly as strict in those days as they are now so that was the last of the Steamer Euro. Anyhow we was all brought to port Adelaide by another steamer. I just forget her name at present. Anyhow shortly after we arrived at Port Adelaide the trial came on which lasted for a few days and the second mate was called for at the trial but he was no-where to be found. And we found that he had bolted away to some of the other states while we was waiting for the trial to come on. He knew he was in the wrong. So he through he would better leave. Anyhow both me and the captain saved our certificates, and the second mate was brought in guilty through not looking out for the break on rock. But he was no-where to be found. So that finished the trial. Now the next thing the agent thought about was to get another steamer, as him and the captain had the Euro only chartered and they did not want to lose the trade so this agent got a man to back him for any amount he wanted and to get another steamer on the run as soon as possible. So there was a steamer came into Melbourne called the India whether for sale or charter. And she anchored at Queenscliff before she went right up to Melbourne as she as for sale or charter. Anyhow the news was about at that time of a steamer being stolen from Glasgow by the name of the Ferret. She belonged to the Highland Railway Co and a policeman was standing in Queenscliff looking at this steamer India. And he thought he knew that steamer at home in Glasgow as very like this stoke Ferret and reported it to the authorities and a naval vessel came down from Melbourne and [?ceased?] her and her crew. So all hands went to Melbourne Jail, and the steamer was towed up to wharf in Melbourne. Now before I say any more, I will just give you the career of the Steamer Ferret, appearingly there was a man in Glasgow that chartered this steamer from the Highland Railway Co for to go on a cruise into the Mediterranean and actually got her coaled and fitted

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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Port Pirie. So I only made the one trip in her as when we arrived in Port Adelaide Captain Dowal (sic) sent for me to mate with him in the Euro as she was nearly ready for sea so I left the Emu, as it was only temporary, and joined the Euro bound down the South East Coast so we loaded and sailed for Lacepede Bay, Beachport and McDonald Bay. And while sailing to those parts I just had a look round all her life boats as in a trade on that rough coast you wanted all her life boat gear in good order in case of an accident and I found that the rope falls of her davits was simply rotten and would not lower away the empty bets if they were wanted as the authorities was not so particular as they are now a days as they passed anything of that sort as long as they had the hull of the ship and engines all right. Anyhow I called the captain along to have a look at her davit falls for lowering away the boats if they should be wanted. So he came along and had a look and says Well I never thought for a moment that there were as bad as that. No I says. I don't suppose those boats has been lowered over the side she left Glasgow where she was build some years ago and her ropes had perished. so the captain told me as soon as we get to Port Adelaide to get a coil of three inch manilla and get those boats falls renewed. So as soon as we arrived we got everything renewed and got the boats all ready for lowering in case of an accident. so we got loaded and sailed for the South east ports with 50 passengers and arrived at Kingston Lacepede Bay and dischargeed what cargo there was for that port, and took 16 more passengers and sailed for a small port called Robe, discharged a big cargo int hat port as there was a few townships away inland, and sailed for Beachport at the break of day. And it was my watch below from twelve o'clock noon until four in the afternoon, and the second mate took the watch from twelve noon until four when we would be getting near Beachport and by good luck it was a beautiful day. And at half past two in the afternoon the second mate rushed down to my berth and sang out to get up as she had struck a rock

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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Hawkins belonging to the same company, as she had just came up from New Zealand for the same company. I only sailed her for three months when the captain of the Mimosa and me changed ships, him being the oldest hand, he had a right to take the newest vessel. So I took the Mimosa and traded round the West coast to Streaky and Fowlers Bays. I sailed her for two years then took charge of the Strathmore belonging to the same company, and she was only 94 tons. I used to trade to Port Pirie and load wheat for Melbourne discharge there, and sail for Launceston Tasmania. And load barley and [?bark] for Port Adelaide. Now all those three vessels was ketch rigged fore and aft and carried their mainsail amid ships. Now while coming from Launceston to Pt Adelaide my right eye took bad and in those small vessels in those days we carried no medicine chest so I just had to do the best I could with that eye until I got to Pt Adelaide as the wind was in my favour, and when I arrived at Pt Adelaide the Doctor advised me to go down to Mount Gambier and see an eye doctor by the name of Doctor Jackson as he was a great eye doctor, and was living in a good climate for curing eyes. This place is about two hundred miles from Adelaide. So when I got there and saw this Doctor he just had a look at it as it was all bound up and said I will cure your eye of any more pain but you will loose (sic) the sight of it, as I won't operate on it. But he would guarantee that I would have no more trouble with it, and that I would be able to see better with the one eye than I could with the two. So I stayed at his hospital for three weeks, and went home to Pt Ade3laide and sure enough I could always see better with one eye than I could with the two. Anyhow my vessel was chartered by another firm. So I had to leave as the other firm had their own master to take her. So I was offered another ketch rigged vessel by the name of the Spindrift, belonging to another firm. And run her for a

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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before we got clear of our cargo, then took in ballast which took another two weeks, and sailed for Mauritius for another cargo of sugar, and arrived at Mauritius in Seventeen days. And got loaded with sugar for Port Adelaide, and sailed and arrived in Port Adelaide in thirty days after an uneventful passage, that would be about the latter end of 1874. So we got discharged of our cargo of sugar, then commenced to load flour for Algoa bay South Africa once more. for it was a dreadful port to go to. Anyhow we had to face it again. so we got loaded and sailed again for Algoa Bay and made a quick passage of twenty eight days, discharged our cargo and took in ballast and sailed for the Mauritius I may say that the Mauritius is an Island belonging to Great Britian (sic) in the Indian Ocean which supplied Australia with sugar, before sugar was grown in Australia, and arrived at Mauritius and commenced loading sugar for Port Adelaide and got loaded and sailed an made a lovely passage in twenty four days and I may say that the same crew was in that ship for nearly three years, without a shift, and I may say that we never lost a rope yard all the three years I was in her with a good captain, officers and crew. So when we arrived at Pt Adelaide, an old friend of mine came on board and asked me if I cared about going mate of a small coaster that had just came round from Melbourne for a Port Adelaide firm. So I aggreed (sic) at once. As I intended to get married and thought I would be more at home. So I told the captain and he paid me of (sic). So I started mate of this little vessel and found she was just the thing. She was trading in the Spencers Gulf trade in the summer, and used to run to Melbourne with wheat, then go to the river Forth Tasmania and load potatoes in bulk for Port Adelaide. So when we arrived in Port Adelaide I got married and settled down in the coasting trade and everythign went smoothly I was only six months in the Mimosa, as that was her name, when I passed for mate and that allowed me to take charge of any sailing vessel, under one hundred tons. So I took charge of a ketch rigged vessel called the Lillie

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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So they loaded the one [?shous] and bags of wheat on board of our ship, and towed her out alongside of the [?J.L. Hall] as she was bound to London. So when we got all the wheat into her she commenced to get underweigh and the captain found the Boatswain or leading seaman was not on board so our boatswain shipped in the J.L. Hall bound to London and I took his place on board of our ship. So we towed back to the wharf at Pt Adelaide and discharged our coals then commenced to load flour for capetown South Africa, and after loading flour we made space on deck for fifty rams and four reaping machines the first reaping machines that arrived in South Africa so we sailed and everything went well and arrived at Capetown dock in eight weeks with the loss of only one of those sheep that was in the year eighteen seventy three. So we discharged our cargo and took in Ballast then took in thirty three horses for the Island of Mauritius for sailing hips in those days had to carry some strange cargos,. So everything went well and arrived at Mauritius in seventeen days, then discharged our horses all in good order and also our ballast and commenced to load sugar for Sydney as there was no sugar grown in Australia in those days SO we got loaded with sugar and sailed for Sydney and after an uneventful passage to Sydney of seven weeks we arrived and discharged our cargo of sugar, took in stone ballast and sailed for Newcastle to load coals for Pt Adelaide. And arrived in Port Adelaide in three weeks and discharged our coals and commenced loading coals for algoa Bay or Port Elizabeth on the east coast of Africa and after loading flour we sailed for Algoa Bay East Africa and as there was no Harbour in Port Elizabeth we had to lay out to an anchorage with two anchors down and about fifty fathoms of cable chain on each bow. And that passage from Pt Adelaide was just two and a half months and Algoa Bay in those days was not a fit place for a ship to lay in as it was open to the Indian Ocean. Anyhow we discharged our cargo of flour into lighters and they landed it through the surf on to the beach. Anyhow we was six weeks

Last edit over 4 years ago by nancyhodge
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two of those old ships lost that winter, bound to Dunedin with coals that was in 1873 as there was no plimsol (sic) mark to load ships to in those days and that was before so many steam colliers came about. And we also met the old captain that got discharged for paying us of with half pay and he shook hands with us, as he said it was through us that he got discharged and that we all ought to be thankful that we had escaped being drowned. I don't suppose the owner would lose much, as those old ships was always well insured. So we stayed on shore for a week or two when we heard of a gold rush that broke out at a place called Scone so three of us packed up and away we went and took our own tent and gear with us and tramped for about a week. But when we got there we found plenty of men there and we found it was only a storekeepers rush so down we came again to a town called Maitland where we got a train to take us to Newcastle. So that saved us a bit of walking. So we went to the same sailors boarding house as there was no sailors home in Newcastle in those days so we lived a week there when one day me and my mate was sitting at the door on a [form?] when a captain came and said he wanted a couple of hands and we asked him what ship and he said the Barque Adeline Burke a collier belonging to Howard Smith in Melbourne, trading between Newcastle and Melbourne. So we agree to ship with him, so we got to the shipping office, and signed articles for six months, and he had all the rest of his crew who signed on in the morning so we got on board and found she was a different ship to the one we left and also in a better trade. So we put our six months in very comfortable trading between Melbourne and Newcastle so we got paid of in Melbourne and they layed her up for a month as Howard Smith had plenty of coals in stock so we all went to the Sailor's home in Spencer Street at that time so while we was living there the captain of a barque came in for a crew called the Wodonga. She had came from the Mauritius with a cargo of sugar which was all discharged and his ship ballasted ready for seas. So he wanted a crew

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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put it in or else go to prison. So go forward and tell the rest of the crew what I said. So my mate and me came forward. But before we let any of the other hands know how we succeeded, I proposed that we should go aft again and ask if he will kindly pay us off on half pay as that would be better than nothing, as if we bolted we might stand a chance of getting three months. Anyhow aft we goes and called the steweard and told him we wanted to see the captain once more. So of course we was prepared to stand a bit of abuse so out he came and wanted to know what was wanted this time. And we told him that we was willing to forfeit half our wages if he would pay us of with the other half. And he asked us if we was speaking for all hands forward. And we told him we was. All right he says. I will pay all hands off in the morning. so you can go forward and tell the rest of the crew. So I can assure you we got no abuse from him as we expected and he was just quiet civil. and as quiet as a lamb. So when the rest of the crew got the news about the halfpay they were simply delighted, and all hands commenced to pack up all their belongings, ready for the morning to go to the shipping office. The [?very] officers packed up also. As every seemed to be heart sick of her. Anyhow when the morning came we had our breakfast, then of for the shipping office, and the captain came and paid us all on halfpay. Well now the captain thought he was doing a favour to the owner, by paying us on halfpay But instead of that he got discharged himself for doing such a thing. So the old ship was cleaned out port and aft so the owner shipped a new captain, officers and crew on a nine months articles, as in those days they could nearly do as they pleased as far as running old traps like those. Anyhow she was towed from her anchorage under the cranes and moored to the wharf by her new crew and was loaded to the scuppers with coals and sailed for Dunedin and never was heard of any more as she had gone down with all hands and my mate and me jut thought it was a Gods Blessing that we got out of her in time, and there was

Last edit over 4 years ago by nancyhodge
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the cranes to load the coal for Dunedin. So we got loaded in a day or two, and sailed. So after we got all sail on her and everything shipshape, the first cry was all hands to the pumps as the mate had sounded the wells and found about three feet of water in her. So we started the pumps and after an hour and a half we got a suck out of her that showed she was nearly dry. But we found we had a long spell at the pumps every two hours so we had a bit of a talk about her leaking so badly and just thought if we got into any bad weather it would just be the last of her. Anyhow we was very fortunate and had a nice fair wind, which carried her across to Dunedin in six days and mighty glad we was to arrive and get clear of the pumps for a bit, as I guess we just carried across. So we discharged her cargo of coal into one of the hulks in Port Chalmers. So we took in Ballast just as much stones as stiffen her as we had signed Articles for six months and we thought it was no use asking for our discharges until we got to Newcastle as there was no coasting vessels in either Port Chalmers or Dunedin. So we sailed and of course was not half as bad as far as the pumps was concerned, as she was only about half loaded and did not make so much water. So we arrived in Newcastle in about fifteen days and dropped her anchor in mid stream and one of the men came to quietly and says what do you say if we go aft and ask the captain if he will pay us off as between you and me he says if he don't pay us off I do intend to bold and as I said that I am just in the same mind as yourself as I am not going to sail in her anymore, when she is loaded, as if she gets into heavy weather that would finish her. So aft we goes and told the steward that we wanted to see the captain so he came and asked what we wanted and we asked him if he would kindly discharge us and upon my word I thought he was going to jump down our throat. No he says you have signed articles for six months so you will have to

Last edit over 4 years ago by tully.barnett
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So I very naturally agreed with him as there was no ships, and I had money enough that I got from my old apprentice mate to take me out on the coach, as there was no railways in the Otago district in those days, so I got out and made a start falling trees, sawing them in lenths (sic) then bore a hole with a big auger about a foot into the log then put in a certain quantity of blasting power and a bit of fuse then set fire to the fuse and stand aside for after the explosion that log was laying in two halfs as those black pine trees was lovely splitting timber then we would do the rest of the splitting with our maul and wedges. So things went on all right for two or three moths. So the boss and me came into Duenedin for a trip and brought in a load of firewood for one of his friends with his horse and waggon (sic) so when we was ready to go out again I thought I would take out my chest and all my belongings as they were left in the boarding house that I lived in at first. So when he was ready we took my check and things and he had a few things also to take out with him so we went very early in the morning and got out early that evening as they had good roads in Otago, if they had no railways. Anyhow we got everything nicely arranged in this hut and just thought that my chest would be a fine place for keeping that bag of blasting powder in. So things went on the same as before for a week or two when one day we came down from the Gov'nt bush and found our hut gone. We supposed that we had left a little fire in hut after breakfast and the wild fowl had got in and got scratching about and set fire to the hit then when it came to my chest of course the blasting powder caught and blew the hut to pieces and did not leave us one stitch so we had a look round to or three yards from where the hut once stood and I picked up one pocket book just a little singled. I was fortunate in picking that book as I had a a few photos in it from home. So I just decided to leave and get into Dunedin by coach so when I arrived I made

Last edit over 4 years ago by nancyhodge
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