Skip to main content

Jacob Scheef letters (5) 20 June 1885

 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 Frederick Scheef, personal collection


Ismalie 

John Elder

the 20 June 1885


My Dear Wife and Children


I am going to let you know how we are going on since I wrote 

last to you from Aden we left the next morning again 

first I must tell you that Aden is in Arabia and a more 

desolate country you can have no idea of nothing but high 

precipitous hills with not a vestige of vegetation neither trees 

grass or bushes could be seen anywhere only either bare 

rocky hills sand or black burnt soil it is impossible to 

describe it on paper it has to be seen to know what it is 

after we left we thought it would become better but it 

remained the same right through to Suez Suez you must know 

lies in the end of the Red Sea where the Suez Canal comes into the 

Red Sea here the first news we heard was that the canal was 

blocked up as one of the dredges that is a boat which keep 

the canal in order by removing the sand which is continually 

washed in was run down and sank so that the delay would be 

at least until this day and the report did not belie us as we are 

still here in the middle of the canal but we expect to leave 

here tomorrow and go to Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea 

from Suez to here is a Sandy Desert on both sides of the canal 

but there is a splendid Garden of the Kedives of Egypt here which 

is planted in raw sand and every variety of trees as well as fruit 

trees and vegetables grown side by side it is watered by a canal 

from the Nile our harbour is a lake of bitter water about two miles 

square and there are close on 40 steamships waiting here to get 

through and on the other side the report goes that there are over 

100 steamers awaiting passage. I will post this letter tomorrow 

at Port Said if we get away. My health is splendid and I have 

a good appetite for better as when I left. it often surprises me what 

a quantity I can eat. My knee which I hurt last winter does not 

improve as I thought it would in Sydney I am longing to 

hear from you but I know it will be another week or perhaps 

a fortnight before I can do so because I must be in 

Germany before I can hear from you in the meantime I must 

only hope that you are all well as well as I am myself


Your most affectionate

Husband and Father

Jacob F Scheef





The cause of the delay
Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), Saturday 20 June 1885, page 13

It is most unfortunate that the delay at the Suez Canal would have robbed Jacob of valuable time with his family. He had not seen them since he emigrated to Australia 30 years previously.


Amongst the cargo on the  John Elder were Australian grapes bound for England. Unfortunately the voyage and possibly the extended stay at the Suez Canal meant the grapes, although packed in cotton wool, arrived as "little better than a mass of corruption".


Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 5 September 1885, page 4 



Jacob's journey (Google Map)
 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
approx. 9 - 20 June - Suez Canal







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh...
13 comments
Read more

My WW1 soldiers (2) - Ernest Lee Dawson

Ernest Lee Dawson (500) (1885 - 1968) This is the second post in  a series of posts over the next few years to remember all the men in my extended family who enlisted in World War 1. So far I have identified 26 soldiers who enlisted between 20 August 1914 and 2 November 1918 and I feel sure I have missed some. Of the twenty six, five were killed overseas or died here in Australia. My aim is to publish these posts on the 100th anniversary of their enlistment. Ernest Lee Dawson (my great uncle) was the eldest child of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born in the Cooma district of NSW in 1885. On 25th August 1914, less than three weeks after the outbreak of the First World War Ernie, a farmer who lived at Old Bonalbo  enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Lismore. Ernie had previous military experience. In 1906, he answered an advertisement to join the Shanghai Municipal Council Police Force, as a recruit. He ...
Post a Comment
Read more