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Round the World Flying
The journal of a Scottish emigrant's, Alick MacNeill of Gigha, written onboard the clipper MacDuff while emigrating to Melbourne, Australia in 1869. Edited by Carol McNeill
Article written by Carol McNeill @Carol McNeill
When Alexander Macneill emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1869 on board the clipper Macduff, he kept a diary recording his 75 days at sea. His purpose was to send it to his family back home, and this he did; but he probably never imagined that his words - beautifully written in the copperplate script of the day on flimsy paper - would survive around 140 years to give a vivid first-hand account of his voyage to what must have been an unknown country and conditions.
Alick (as his family called him) was born on 14 May 1848 on the small island of Gigha off the west coast of Kintyre, on the west of Scotland. The 1851 census shows that his family lived in Achnaha Ferry House where his father Archibald was the ferryman between Gigha and Tayinloan on the Kintyre mainland. Archibald and his wife Margaret had seven children - Archibald (born 1840), John (1844), Malcolm (1846), Alick, Donald (1850), Margaret (1852) and Catherine who was born in 1855.
His descriptions of the ship are often poetic, and today’s readers can well imagine the clipper’s huge billowing sails making use of every scrap of canvas to catch the available wind. On the seventh day out, he refers to his voyage as “going round the world flying.” A week later he says: “It really is a very fine sight to stand at the stern and look upwards at our vast wings which are something like a large hill covered with snow.”
The journal itself is an unbound manuscript, rather like a school jotter with no covers, on very thin paper. The transcription has been as faithful to the original as possible, keeping to the punctuation, underlining for emphasis, vocabulary of the day in words such as signalising and diarising, and the habit of putting the first letter of many nouns in upper case. He must have sent his diary back from Melbourne at some point, possibly to his brother or sister, as it came to light rolled up and all but forgotten in a family desk in Glasgow.
The end of Alick’s story is a sad one: he died just two years after reaching Melbourne at the age of 23 from tuberculosis, that scourge of the times which also took the lives of his two brothers and a sister. So his long journey, taken with such optimism and courage to his brave new world, was cut tragically short. He died alone and unmarried at his accommodation in Highett Street in Melbourne’s borough of Richmond, and was buried in what was an unmarked grave in Boroondara cemetery, although last year a plaque has now been put up on the site by family and friends. He never did get back to Gigha to see his family again: when his father died four years later, his mother added Alick’s name to his father’s headstone in the peaceful Kilchattan graveyard in Gigha. It is some comfort to know that, thanks to his journal which was written under the billowing sails of a clipper, his words still ring out fresh and clear some 140 years after he left his native Scotland.
Extracts from his journal:
1st day. Sunday 18th April 1869
Yesterday evening our Pilot left us off Isle of Wight and took with him my last Despatches for home and other friends. This is my first Sunday at sea. Far behind is still to be seen the Lizard Point and Devonshire Coast. The passengers (especially the ladies) have enjoyed the Poop all day sitting on chairs reading with rugs, plaids, and all comforts round them. All round us are ships outward bound like ourselves, but I fear time and speed will soon make us dispense with each other. We had for dinner the following dishes, viz: 1st choice of all soups, Roast beef, roast mutton, pork, Australian beef and fowls, 3rd rice, sago, Black Cherry and many other puddings and pastry, 4th bread and cheese, 5th Fruit consisting of apples, oranges, figs, raisins, almonds nuts etc etc served up in the saloon.
14th day. Saturday 1st May
I now enter on a new month, and this is the first day of summer with you all at home. I can well picture you all going out and speaking of the May dew. I am only sorry that I cannot join you. Do you remember, dear Johnnie, the long walk you and I took before breakfast this day one year, and of the two pence worth of milk we bought from the Dairy woman in or near Partick? These recollections are pleasant now to me, and come up quite vividly to my mind.
Lat 25.12N Long 23.13W Total run 167 miles
27th day. Friday 14th May
This is my Birth Day and it is really a matter of fact ever to be remembered by me that I cross the Equator the day I came of age. It is a curious coincidence and very few I am sure have the same to say. The hour we crossed the line was shortly before 1 o’c this morning. The Sailors of course asserted that Neptune came on board. Two of them dressed up supposed to be Neptune and his wife (God and goddess of the Sea). They did their part very well - having shaved five of the Sailors who never crossed before with tar used for Soap, after which they were all immersed in a large tub of water, head foremost - how we all laughed.
Lat 0.14S Long 26.17W Total run 76 miles
53rd day. Wednesday 9th June
It is six years this date since first I saw Glasgow - it was then that I first left my native Isle to enter the business of our Commercial World and here I am today - within 3 weeks sailing from Melbourne. All day has been calm and not a breath of wind to help us on. This is an exception in the Southern Latitudes as the wind invariably blows very strong. Have occupied my time in fishing for Birds but none were caught by any of us.
Lat 42.15S Long 27.3E Total run 132 miles
Thursday 1st July 1869
Land, Land Ho!!! And I need not tell you that I am filled with gratitude to God for that blessed sound. Can you judge my feelings now? 13,500 miles away from home. I cannot speak for my fellow passengers, but I know that my heart feels most thankful while gazing at that glorious sight - It is Cape Otway which was first seen at 5 this morning - I write this at 7 tonight, and before us we see the Light houses of the Port Philip Heads (one on each side). We were signalled from the shore at Cape Otway this morning and our arrival has been telegraphed on to Melbourne already. Captain has just given orders to lay in till breakfast and keep the Lights of the Heads in view. We have just finished a jolly night’s amusement. Mr Sanderson proposed the health of Captain Watson who replied in very suitable terms indeed. The Queen was given by Mr Bourne and the Revd Mr Grant gave the Ladies coupled with the name of the bonnie Macduff.
To read more: Round the World Flying edited by Carol McNeill with introduction and illustrations, costs £10, plus £1.50 p and p UK or £4 elsewhere. Signed copies available direct from author through www.carolmcneill.co.uk or fifepublicity@btinternet.com
When Alexander Macneill emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1869 on board the clipper Macduff, he kept a diary recording his 75 days at sea. His purpose was to send it to his family back home, and this he did; but he probably never imagined that his words - beautifully written in the copperplate script of the day on flimsy paper - would survive around 140 years to give a vivid first-hand account of his voyage to what must have been an unknown country and conditions.
Alick (as his family called him) was born on 14 May 1848 on the small island of Gigha off the west coast of Kintyre, on the west of Scotland. The 1851 census shows that his family lived in Achnaha Ferry House where his father Archibald was the ferryman between Gigha and Tayinloan on the Kintyre mainland. Archibald and his wife Margaret had seven children - Archibald (born 1840), John (1844), Malcolm (1846), Alick, Donald (1850), Margaret (1852) and Catherine who was born in 1855.
His descriptions of the ship are often poetic, and today’s readers can well imagine the clipper’s huge billowing sails making use of every scrap of canvas to catch the available wind. On the seventh day out, he refers to his voyage as “going round the world flying.” A week later he says: “It really is a very fine sight to stand at the stern and look upwards at our vast wings which are something like a large hill covered with snow.”
The journal itself is an unbound manuscript, rather like a school jotter with no covers, on very thin paper. The transcription has been as faithful to the original as possible, keeping to the punctuation, underlining for emphasis, vocabulary of the day in words such as signalising and diarising, and the habit of putting the first letter of many nouns in upper case. He must have sent his diary back from Melbourne at some point, possibly to his brother or sister, as it came to light rolled up and all but forgotten in a family desk in Glasgow.
 Last page of diary of Alick MacNeill @Carol McNeill |  Alick's plaque at Boroondara cemetary |  His fathers headstone in Gigha |
The end of Alick’s story is a sad one: he died just two years after reaching Melbourne at the age of 23 from tuberculosis, that scourge of the times which also took the lives of his two brothers and a sister. So his long journey, taken with such optimism and courage to his brave new world, was cut tragically short. He died alone and unmarried at his accommodation in Highett Street in Melbourne’s borough of Richmond, and was buried in what was an unmarked grave in Boroondara cemetery, although last year a plaque has now been put up on the site by family and friends. He never did get back to Gigha to see his family again: when his father died four years later, his mother added Alick’s name to his father’s headstone in the peaceful Kilchattan graveyard in Gigha. It is some comfort to know that, thanks to his journal which was written under the billowing sails of a clipper, his words still ring out fresh and clear some 140 years after he left his native Scotland.
Extracts from his journal:
1st day. Sunday 18th April 1869
Yesterday evening our Pilot left us off Isle of Wight and took with him my last Despatches for home and other friends. This is my first Sunday at sea. Far behind is still to be seen the Lizard Point and Devonshire Coast. The passengers (especially the ladies) have enjoyed the Poop all day sitting on chairs reading with rugs, plaids, and all comforts round them. All round us are ships outward bound like ourselves, but I fear time and speed will soon make us dispense with each other. We had for dinner the following dishes, viz: 1st choice of all soups, Roast beef, roast mutton, pork, Australian beef and fowls, 3rd rice, sago, Black Cherry and many other puddings and pastry, 4th bread and cheese, 5th Fruit consisting of apples, oranges, figs, raisins, almonds nuts etc etc served up in the saloon.
14th day. Saturday 1st May
I now enter on a new month, and this is the first day of summer with you all at home. I can well picture you all going out and speaking of the May dew. I am only sorry that I cannot join you. Do you remember, dear Johnnie, the long walk you and I took before breakfast this day one year, and of the two pence worth of milk we bought from the Dairy woman in or near Partick? These recollections are pleasant now to me, and come up quite vividly to my mind.
Lat 25.12N Long 23.13W Total run 167 miles
27th day. Friday 14th May
This is my Birth Day and it is really a matter of fact ever to be remembered by me that I cross the Equator the day I came of age. It is a curious coincidence and very few I am sure have the same to say. The hour we crossed the line was shortly before 1 o’c this morning. The Sailors of course asserted that Neptune came on board. Two of them dressed up supposed to be Neptune and his wife (God and goddess of the Sea). They did their part very well - having shaved five of the Sailors who never crossed before with tar used for Soap, after which they were all immersed in a large tub of water, head foremost - how we all laughed.
Lat 0.14S Long 26.17W Total run 76 miles
53rd day. Wednesday 9th June
It is six years this date since first I saw Glasgow - it was then that I first left my native Isle to enter the business of our Commercial World and here I am today - within 3 weeks sailing from Melbourne. All day has been calm and not a breath of wind to help us on. This is an exception in the Southern Latitudes as the wind invariably blows very strong. Have occupied my time in fishing for Birds but none were caught by any of us.
Lat 42.15S Long 27.3E Total run 132 miles
Thursday 1st July 1869
Land, Land Ho!!! And I need not tell you that I am filled with gratitude to God for that blessed sound. Can you judge my feelings now? 13,500 miles away from home. I cannot speak for my fellow passengers, but I know that my heart feels most thankful while gazing at that glorious sight - It is Cape Otway which was first seen at 5 this morning - I write this at 7 tonight, and before us we see the Light houses of the Port Philip Heads (one on each side). We were signalled from the shore at Cape Otway this morning and our arrival has been telegraphed on to Melbourne already. Captain has just given orders to lay in till breakfast and keep the Lights of the Heads in view. We have just finished a jolly night’s amusement. Mr Sanderson proposed the health of Captain Watson who replied in very suitable terms indeed. The Queen was given by Mr Bourne and the Revd Mr Grant gave the Ladies coupled with the name of the bonnie Macduff.
To read more: Round the World Flying edited by Carol McNeill with introduction and illustrations, costs £10, plus £1.50 p and p UK or £4 elsewhere. Signed copies available direct from author through www.carolmcneill.co.uk or fifepublicity@btinternet.com
| Linked to | Alexander MacNeill (Emigration) |
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