Guide to the Papers of Jonathon Bennett (as filmed by AJCP)
M714
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Title
- Papers of Jonathon Bennett (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1850 - 1852
- Collection Number
- M714
- Extent
- 1 item
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Logbook 24 May 1850-8 March 1852 recording the ship's voyage from Liverpool to China. The entries record daily routine aboard, weather observations, the navigational course of the ship, and behaviour of the crew, including desertions. Most of the crew were discharged at Port Jackson and new hands hired.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed at the private residence of Mr P.S. Laurie, England, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1968 (AJCP Reel: M714). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
The private residence of Mr P.S. Laurie, Surrey, England.
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2175527] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding Aid Note
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Bennett, Jonathon; Bombay, India; India; Liverpool, England; Margaret (ship); San Francisco, USA; Tahiti; United States of America; Sydney, New South Wales: visits to; Logbook
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 32, p. 11.
Biographical / Historical
Officer on the trading vessel Margaret which sailed in 1850 from Liverpool to San Francisco, visiting Tahiti, Sydney, Bombay and China.
The Margaret, a 644 ton trading vessel commanded by John Ord, sailed from Liverpool on 2 July 1850. It stopped briefly at Juan Fernandez (21 Oct. 1850) before reaching San Francisco on 22 December 1850. It left San Francisco on 31 March 1851 and sailed across the Pacific, stopping briefly at Clarion Island (13 April 1851), Papeete (9-14 May 1851) and Lady Elliot Island (14 June 1851), before reaching Sydney on 18 June 1851. It left Sydney on 21 August 1851 and sailed northwards to Endeavour Strait, passing Raine Island and Booby Island, and then westwards to India. It reached Bombay on 14 November 1851 where it took on board a cargo of cotton. It left Bombay on 14 January 1852 and by 9 March (the final entry) was a short distance from Singapore on course to China.
Item Descriptions
Logbook of the ship Margaret, 24 May 1850 - 9 March 1852 (File)
Logbook of the ship Margaret, kept by the Mate, Jonathon Bennett, on a voyage from Liverpool to San Francisco, Sydney and Bombay, 24 May 1850 – 9 March 1852.
The logbook was presumably written up each day from a deck log. Bennett usually signed the daily entries. While at sea, there were two hourly entries recording speed, course and winds, while the position of the ship was recorded each day. The entries in the 'Remarks' column are mostly of a routine nature: the weather, winds, the seas, sail changes, occupations of the crew. The daily entries while in port are very brief, referring to the loading or unloading of cargo, ballast and casks of water, and work preparing the ship for sea.
Among the less routine entries was the battering that the ship received during a hurricane off the west coast of America (16 Dec. 1850), subsequent charges of disobedience against crew members, the captain's fears of a possible mutiny, desertions of crew members at San Francisco, a boat accident off Clarion Island resulting in the death of one sailor (13 April 1851), further desertions at Sydney, a fight between sailors (24 Sept. 1851), and the employment of lascars at Bombay.