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Beulah | Official Number
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Beulah | Official Number
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The Beulah was a full-rigged ship built at Maryport by Huddleston
& Ritson, and launched on the 29th August 1840. She was the largest vessel
built at Maryport to that date, and was intended for the trade to India and
China. In the 1850's the Beulah made
several voyages between London and Australia, and the following letter
is an account from an emigrant of one of her passages.
The Liverpool Mercury, Friday, 12th August 1853;
" Melbourne, March 3, 1853.
My dear Aunt, - I arrived here on Christmas-day, after a long, but very fine
passage of 17 weeks. We left Gravesend on Saturday night, August 28th, in
the barque Beulah, 578 tons register. A beautiful moonlight night.
We had about 150 passengers, of all sizes and ages, from the infant of two
or three months to the grey-headed old man of 60. We were divided into messes
of 8 persons, and out of each mess there was one appointed as captain of
the mess to receive the provisions when they were issued, attend to the cooking,
make puddings, grind the coffee, &c. Most of our provisions were issued
weekly, such as tea, coffee, sugar, flour, rice, raisins, &c., but the
water, beef, pork, preserved meat, fish, &c., were served out daily.
We had two cooks, one for the ship's company and one for the passengers.
We had to prepare our own things ready for cooking, and take them to the
cook. A good many of us have learnt to make very excellent plum-puddings
and cakes, and to boil rice, &c., &c., very useful accomplishements
for any one coming to this colony.
Our captain is one of the best tempered fellows that ever walked a quarter
deck; he was always civil and obliging to everybody, and always in a good
humour. There was not one of the passengers had a single complaint against
him; but everyone spoke well of him. In fine weather we generally had dancing
and singing on deck in the evening, and there was chess playing, cards, draughts,
dominoes, &c., all day long, some playing the fiddle, some accordeons,
some flutes, &c., &c., to pass away the time.
We did not get out of sight of old England till Friday, September 3rd. The
last we saw of England was Lizard Point, and we saw no more land till we
arrived here, excepting Madeira, and it was a long distance off. We passed
it on Monday, September 20th; we could not see it very distinctly, as it
was dull, cloudy weather at the time.
Nothing particular occurred till Thursday, October 14th, when the Sarah Sands,
a four-masted steamer from Liverpool, passed us. She was bound for Port Phillip,
with passengers. We crossed the line on Monday, October 18th, in lon.16W,
about eleven p.m. Rounded the Cape of Good Hope on Thursday, November 18th,
wind south-west, blowing hard, sea very rough, and very cold weather; some
of the passengers sea-sick again.
Thursday, December 23rd: Land ho! on our larboard bow, first thing in the
morning. Wind S.W., blowing great guns. Flying along under close-reefed topsails
and foretopmast-staysail. Everybody on deck viewing the coast as we sailed
along. Entered Port Phillip at four p.m., and dropped anchor just within
the heads, where we had to wait for a pilot till the next evening about six
o'clock, when he came on board, and we proceeded up the bay to Hobson's Bay,
off Williamstown, at the mouth of the river Yarra Yarra, on which the city
of Melbourne is situated. We dropped anchor in Hobson's Bay on Saturday,
December 25th, at seven a.m., all very much pleased that our long voyage
had at length terminated, and all very desirous to go ashore. For all our
voyage was so long, we had not a single case of illness on board all the
time, except sea sickness. Our doctor's situation was a sinecure; he had
nothing to do but walk about smoking his pipe, &c. "
The Beulah disappeared from Lloyd's Register in 1858. She did
not appear in the 1857 Mercantile Navy List, which probably means that
she was lost or sold foreign before that date.
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