Passengers to Natal on RMS Natal Oct 1875

'Arrival of RMS Natal 28 Mail Bags 58 Passengers. Yesterday at a quarter past two o'clock this steamer arrived at the outer anchorage. She has made exceedingly quick passage, having left Cape Town at noon on 6th inst. Capt Airth (Port Captain) at once proceeded out in the tug which did battle with the waves going across the bar, a heavy sea being on at the time. The mails were landed at a quarter to 4. We are indebted to Capt Gilbert for a report of the voyage. Capt Gilbert has had a splendid run this trip. Having been only 45 hours from Cape Town to Algoa Bay and 53 hours thence to Natal including stoppage at East London.' (Natal Mercury 12.10.1875)

This Natal (not to be confused with the General Screw Co vessel of the same name in the 1850's) was a Union Line coaster. Built in 1866, 618 tons, she was intended for the colonial coastal trade. Despite being described as capable of crossing the bar at Durban in all conditions, she evidently anchored out in the roadstead on her arrival in October 1875.

Natal had the dubious distinction of losing her captain, Ridsdale, when he fell overboard during a voyage to Cape Town. On a more auspicious occasion she carried Sir John Molteno and other notables. In 1873 she inaugurated the Zanzibar Line, sailing to Zanzibar from the Cape.

Arrived 11 October 1875 RMS Natal (took 5 days from the Cape).

Passengers:

ANDERSON Farquharson
ANDERSON Alexander
ANDERSON Charlotte
ANDERSON Margaret Jane
ANDERSON Neil McInnes
ANDERSON Wilhelmina
AUGUR James H
BALENTYNE Anne
BATH Samuel
HOBSON Matilda A
HORN Alexander
LEFEVRE Arthur
METCALF Frank Hardy
METCALF John
METCALF Louisa
METCALF Percy James
MITCHELL Alex Hector
PERFECT (infant)
PERFECT Annie
PERFECT Henry
PERFECT Maria
PERFECT Rebecca
PERFECT Rebecca M A
PERFECT Robert William
PERFECT William
SMALWOOD Thomas
WALLETT Eliza
WALLETT George

Not all passengers are listed by name. Sureties (i.e. providing employment) for some of those on board were Black Baxter & Co. The Anderson family had emigrated from Aberdeen and were to settle at Umzinto on the south coast of Natal. After the death of Farquharson Anderson, his widow Charlotte married William Dixon Smith.

The road to Umzinto, Natal South Coast:
crossing a drift by ox-wagon. There were about 20 rivers
to cross between Durban and Umzinto, a hazardous undertaking.
The lengthy sea voyage was merely the start of the settlers' journey.

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Souvenir Saturday: letter from Ladysmith 1900

One of the best sources of information about an ancestor is original correspondence written by him, or, failing that, by his contemporaries. Sometimes more is gleaned from the people who knew him than from the ancestor's own letters, in which he may have been reticent about the details later to be of special interest to his descendants.

Fortunately for the Smith family, a number of letters written during the siege of Ladysmith by William Dixon Smith, Lieut Quartermaster of the Border Mounted Rifles, survived and were preserved. Among them was one of which Smith was not the author. This was written by Captain W Arnott of the BMR to his wife Betsy and took the form of a long essay to which he continued to add pages for the duration of the siege, as there was no way of sending any mail out of the beleaguered town.  

From Arnott's letter, we learn more about William Dixon Smith's final few days before he died at Intombi hospital camp on 13 January 1900.

Poor Smith of Umzinto died of fever last week. His was a very peculiar case. He felt poorly for a few days and was quite indignant when the Dr sent him to hospital. They kept him there for a fortnight and as [he] got neither better nor worse they sent him out to the Neutral camp at Ntombi spruit thinking that the change of air might improve him. It wasn't to be, poor fellow.

In fact, it's likely that the change of air, far  from doing William any good, may have worsened his condition as by that stage enteric and dysentery were rife at Intombi and men were dying like flies.

Ironically, William's own last communication with his family, who were awaiting  news anxiously in Umzinto, was a telegram sent by heliograph, intending to reassure his wife with the optimistic message 'All Well'.


For a group photo of the BMR officers, including Smith and Arnott, see
molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/05/souvenir-saturday-natal-border-mounted.html

and of William Dixon Smith in his BMR uniform
molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/souvenir-saturday-william-dixon-smith.html


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Intombi Cemetery Memorials: Anglo-Boer War 6

DAVIES, John Estcourt Hungerford - Natal Carbineers
d. 21st Jan 1900
This stone is erected by his loving wife and children
In Affectionate Memory
'Will Ye Not Come Back again'

DIXON SMITH, William - Lieut. Quartermaster, Border Mounted Rifles
d. 13th Jan 1900 (of enteric fever)
(Cross is missing; see ANDERSON, A O
for similar cross bearing inscription
'Border Mounted Rifles' with regimental motto 'Rough But Ready' plus boot and spur insignia)

DUKE, Frederick
third son of Thomas and Harriet Duke of Steyning, Sussex, England
who after serving with the Natal Carbineers in the Boer War
died of enteric fever at Ndombi [sic] during the Siege of Ladysmith, on 20 Feb 1900 aged 31 years

Photographs: Dixon-Smith

For further information and background on Intombi enter that term in the search facility on this blog.