An account of the voyage to Sydney (of R. & M. Kebby) of the ship Wilmot, Captain Miller

MLMSS 12054

fonds

1839-1840

9676338

0.03 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript

Robert Kebby and his wife Mary arrived in Sydney in January 1840, renting a room in Hunter Street and then purchasing a terrace house in Bourke Street, Woolloomooloo. From 1844 Robert ran a successful tea and grocery warehouse in Market Street, until he and Mary returned to England in 1853.
Reference: Library correspondence file

Unpublished shipboard journal of Robert Kebby, describing the voyage to Sydney, New South Wales, from London, with his wife Mary on the barque Wilmot, September 1839-January 1840. Handwritten in ink over 13 pages in a leatherbound quarto-size notebook. The journal recounts the voyage, which begins with Kebby breaking a tooth on a ship’s biscuit. He describes the other passengers, conditions on board, and the weather, including a gale in the Bay of Biscay, after which the passengers spent a day ‘drying the bedding caused by sea dashing over and running through decks’, and a swarm of locusts blown on board after passing Cape Verde, with the thermometer reaching 120 degrees.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales