My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home.
 |
| Jacob Scheef - personal collection |
John Elder Aden
the 8 June 1885
My Dear Wife and Children
I am having the chance now to let you know how I am
getting on since I left Adelaide where I sent my last
My Dear Wife and Children
I am having the chance now to let you know how I am
getting on since I left Adelaide where I sent my last
letter from. First my health and appetite is very good
and in general I am well placed with the eating on the
ship board as we have always fresh meat and potatoes
the bread is even new and of first class quality Now I am going
to let you now about the progress we made and the sights
we have seen. Adelaide is a very nice Town but a good
deal smaller then Melbourne it has a splendid Botanical
Garden but the harbour where we laid on was the open sea
We stopped one day at Adelaide and left on the 18 May in
the evening on the 19 we saw the last of South Australia
the 23 saw the last land of Australia and on the 24 passed
Cape Luewin the 2 June stopped at Diego Garcia
for 4 hours but only a few of us were allowed to go on land
the Islands look splendid with palms a very forest of them
but the inhabitants are either to lazy or too stupid to make
the best use of them as they brought not a single thing to
us for sale on the 5 June passed the Equator the 7
sighted the Northern most Cape of Africa and lost sight of
it this morning this night we will be in Aden which is
in Asia our voyage is on the whole a bad one as we
have always headwind and very rough weather we
only used the sail 4 days since we left Sydney a
distance of over 7 000 miles we had some concerts and
negro minstrel amusements when the weather permitted it
we are over 200 passenger on board amongst them 9
Germans which are representing Germany from Austria to
Holstein our population is of ages from a few days to
over 70 years old. there is great difference in a steamer and a
sailing ship in bad weather it is only childs play on a
steamer.
Your loving Husband and Father
Jacob Scheef
Jacob Scheef
they charge one shilling for this letter
These two paintings of Diego Garcia were painted by Harold John Graham in 1885. The second probably answers why "only a few of us were allowed to go on land." It looks like the John Elder may have been anchored off shore and thus only one rowboat went ashore. Why was Jacob one of the few? Did he pay for the privilege?
Beach and trees at Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, 1885?
Public Domain National Library of Australia
 |
Eclipse Bay including a rowboat with four crew and four passengers |
 |
| My Maps - Google |
early May - Armidale
12 May - left Sydney
16 May - Melbourne
16 May - Cape Otway
17 May - Largs Bay, Adelaide
24 May - Cape Leeuwin - Western Australia
2 June - Diego Garcia
8 June - Aden
Comments
Post a Comment