Passengers to Natal: the Elizabeth Martin 1873

On 5 August 1873 the Natal Mercury announced in eulogistic terms the arrival on the 3rd of the Currie Line steamer Elizabeth Martin from East London from which she had sailed on the 2 August under Captain Deacon. She carried a general cargo and only 8 passengers were named, viz:

Mr W Palmer
Mr Fuller
Mr and Mrs Garbut
Mr N Garbut
Mr Steel
Mr MacKenzie
Mr Deare

Black, Baxter & Co were the agents.

At three o'clock last Sunday afternoon (3rd August) a large steamer was sighted to the westward. She steamed round the Bluff at 3.40 p.m., anchored in the roadstead, and was made out to be the Elizabeth Martin, 906 tons, Captain Deacon (late of the Gothland), of Messrs. Donald Currie & Co's line. The tug went out to her about half past four o'clock, towing a cargo boat. The bar was rough, and the sea outside ran so high that the mails could not be put on board the tug. They were trans-shipped into the lighter, which arrived back in the bay very soon after the tug. There were 33 bags of mails, and our packet of extras, containing the latest European news, to the 25th June.
The Elizabeth Martin is a very fine, handsome, smart, and comfortable steamer. The passengers who have come up in her speak in the highest terms of her steaming capabilities, and of the courtesy and ability of her commander and his officers. She had a head wind all the way up from East London, and yet she made the run in about 24 hours. She was off the Umkomaas about 1 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. We are glad to hear that she is to be kept on the coast until the Florence arrives out, about the end of September.
She has brought up eight passengers, whose names will be found in our shipping column. Amongst them we are glad to welcome back our much-respected fellow-townsman, Mr W Palmer, who has had a pleasant trip through the Transvaal, Diamond Fields, and Cape Colony; whose health, we are glad to say, is thoroughly re-established; and who has many an interesting tale to tell of absent Natalians with whom he met and conversed during his wanderings.
The steamer's mail bags arrived at the post-office in town about six o'clock in the evening, and were delivered about nine o'clock. The steamer has only a small quantity of cargo for Natal, the manifest of which, together with that per Teuton, will be found in our extra. She discharged a great deal of cargo at Algoa Bay and East London. She is to come inside to-day, and all who can should pay her a visit. She is the largest steamer that will have crossed our bar, her gross tonnage being 1260.  

Natal Mercury 7 August 1873:

The entrance of the Elizabeth Martin into our inner harbour is an event worthy of special notice in the records of our port. This fine steamer is much the largest vessel that has yet crossed the bar. Her burthen is over 1200 tons, her register shows upwards of 800 tons. She is 250 feet long. Nevertheless she entered the harbour safely and easily at dead neap tides. We congratulate both her commander and our Port Captain upon this interesting fact. Some months ago, when referring to the trade of the River Plate, we pointed out that there was no reason why vessels of large tonnage should not be built so as to come inside, and the present incident is proof of the fact. If a permanent depth of 18 feet could be secured on the bar steamers of 2000 tons might ply direct between England and Natal without the drawback of detention at the outer anchorage. It is of the utmost importance however, that the condition of the inner harbour should be improved, and the present channels, which are ever shifting and shoaling, be permanently straightened and deepened. We are glad to hear that Sir Benjamin Pine intends to visit Durban next week, with the especial purpose of inspecting both the harbour and the works. 

Passenger lists as a primary source in SA family history research

The above photo is of a passenger list taken from a handwritten register of arrivals at Port Natal in 1849 i.e. a record made at the time of the event and therefore considered to be primary evidence.
Even at normal size - zoom in for a closer look - the text is by no means easy to read.

Family historians in search of an ancestor's arrival in South Africa clamour for passenger lists. To find an original list mentioning an immigrant ancestor written in a register at the port of arrival is a rare and precious thing. There has been no concerted national effort to index the registers which have survived. In Natal it's fortunate that the European Immigration Registers have been preserved, though they are not all-inclusive. There is also an index (not online) to these arrivals covering from about the mid 1840s to the turn of the century. 

If you're lucky enough to discover in the original register an entry which seems likely to refer to your ancestor, and if you are able to read the handwriting, you should acquire some interesting facts.

From left to right (as seen in the typical example above) the columns of the register show: month, day, name of ship, type of ship, name of master, tonnage of vessel, port of departure, date of departure (that is from the port of embarkation, London in this instance). The passengers' names are written across the width of all these columns (no nice tidy alphabetical lists, if that's what you expected) and continued over the central binding, which has separated slightly (be aware of that when matching up lines of text). Generally, though, the condition of the register is good for its age - over 150 years. Careful handling of these volumes is important.

The arrival date of the barque Washington is given here as 18 July: in fact the vessel reached Natal on 17 July so why does the register offer the following day? The answer is that like many other ships of that era, the Washington had had to wait in the 'roads' (roadstead or outer anchorage) before suitable conditions of wind and tide made it possible to cross the Bar (the sandbank at the entrance to the harbour) and enter the Bay. When compiling our family narrative, which day should feature in an account of the ancestor's arrival at the port? The detail concerning tonnage of the ship often varies from source to source - if you care about getting it right.

In these early volumes (and the 1840s are early for Natal) no personal information such as occupation or age is given for the passengers. This would be one good reason to check newspaper reports at that time for any published versions of a passenger list and to do a comparative exercise.

There could be several versions of a passenger list particularly if the ship was carrying a large group of immigrants as part of a private or government scheme. Mistakes could arise prior to embarkation: passengers might get cold feet at the last minute and decide not to emigrate after all, family members might fall ill, perhaps die. Such names might not be removed from the passenger list - i.e. the list carried on board - before the ship sailed. When the vessel arrived at its destination, the Port Captain would draw up a list of the passengers who landed. The immigration agent would have his own list. By the time the reported list appeared in the press there were likely to be several discrepancies - incorrect initials, misspelled surnames, omissions.

A local newspaper published the passenger list of the Washington twice, because of errors in names shown in the first printing. Yet the first list offered occupations of the immigrants, a useful detail omitted in the second printing and not appearing in the handwritten register's version. Probably the occupations were included in the immigration agent's list made available to the press.

The Washington, because it was one of the Byrne settler ships, is well-documented in other published sources. John Clark's book, Natal Settler Agent, gives detailed lists of all the Byrne passengers and the ships which brought them to Natal. His sources included private correspondence and other documents of Moreland, Byrne's agent. So, if your ancestor travelled on the Washington it's probably not essential to access the original handwritten passenger register: but it is rewarding on some deeper level to see the ancestor's name as recorded at the point of arrival in the country of destination.

For further information on tracing ancestors through passenger lists, use the search facility on this blog or browse the archived posts using the menu at right.

The Natal Witness 18 July 1849: 2nd version of
Washington passenger list.

Update 2012: the eGGSA Passenger List Project is a work in progress and can be accessed at 

http://www.eggsa.org/arrivals/eGGSA%20Passenger%20Project.html