This little book of 22 pages plus 10 Introductory pages, tells the story of the three-masted Scottish cargo vessel "Vicksburg" on her voyage from London Dock to Port Phillip, Melbourne, between July and November, 1867. A genealogically useful description of the captain, crew and 3rd class steerage passengers is given by William Haselwood, late editor of the Tunbridge Wells Gazette.

Even by the standards of the period, life aboard this vessel during its journey of some 12,000 miles, was considered one of boredom, frustration and privation by some of the passengers. As a consequence, our reporter recorded his thoughts on such diverse subjects as a ship's rescue on the Banks of Newfoundland in 1854, lack of Sunday observance, sailors' songs, a nocturnal invasion of cockroaches and rats, the activities of Dennis, the ship's pig, as well as the misbehaviour of the two youthful "reprobates", Payne and Walker.

The ship's company included:-

Captain David Thomson, 1st mate William Watson, 2nd mate Charles Honeyman, sailmaker, ex Captain Tom Gale, and Steward Matthew Wilson.

The passengers included:-

Samuel Arent, William H Haselwood, Mrs "Charlie" Haselwood, Richard Keilly, F H Payne / Paine, Mrs Mary Pring, John Timmes?, Fredk. L Walker, Margaret Wilson and family.

Ships recorded en route:-

The "Alsafar" en route from Liverpool to Bombay, the "George H Warren," a Liverpool barque, "La Tropique," a French barque, and the "Sea King" from Liverpool, returning from San Francisco.

32pp ISBN 0-9539369-7-X : Price £3.00

This title may be obtained from: -

Keith Mitchell, 127 Morriston Road, Elgin, IV30 4NB (or)
via email enquiry to enquiry@scottishfamilyheritage.co.uk

Please add postage as follows: -

UK 2nd class post (60p), Europe (£1.20), Australasia Air Mail (£1.50) & North America Air Mail (£1.50).

Gosch's 266 page diary was written only for personal consumption. This current edition endeavours to present the account of the tour as near to the original text as possible, while making it more readable for a wider audience.

Born a native of Copenhagen in 1832, Charles August Gosch was a zoologist and political writer, originally training as an entomologist. He came to London in 1859 where he became an attaché to the Danish legation until his death in 1913. During his early years he wrote about Danish issues in connection with Schlesvig. His main work was an Overview of Denmark’s Zoological Literature (1870-78), which consisted of one volume on the philosophy and scientific methods of natural history, two volumes on relevant literature and one very thorough bibliography. He was married to Harriette Smith, some 10 years his senior, who was born in Aldermaston, Berkshire and part of a landowning Wiltshire family.

General Tour Information

It was from about the 1870's that the tourist industry began significantly opening up in Norway. The main flow of visitors apparently came from Britain, the United States of America and Germany. However, travelling particularly in the countryside by road was, by all accounts, frequently time consuming and uncomfortable. Many of the main roads in Norway were only constructed during the second half of the 19th century. The engineers, who were responsible for building them, frequently had to cope with extremely difficult and sometimes almost impossible terrain. In many instances the highest engineering skills were required to produce the desired result, and Gosch records some of the road building that was taking place at the time of the tour. No doubt tourist travel on the Norwegian road system then prevalent would have its idyllic moments. However, in many places, rough conditions, coupled with travelling long distances in a horse drawn carriage, such as the ubiquitous stolkjerre, must have required a considerable degree of stamina.

The Gosch's tour began on 28th July 1890, when August and Harriette left London by train for Brussels. Another train journey took them to Copenhagen, where they remained till the 2nd of August. Danish friends in Copenhagen strongly advised them not to undertake their proposed trip, but this advice was ignored, and the Goschs made their way by a further train journey to Christiania (Oslo), via Helsingør and Trölhatten.

 After exploring Christiania, the capital city of Norway and the coastal resort of Sandefjord, August and Harriette made their way inland to the small town of Hönefoss. It was from here that on the 13th of August, they began their explorations of the Norwegian interior. These excursions were undertaken variously by train, steamboat, horse-drawn carriage, as well as on foot, and for a considerable distance followed the direction of the modern Norwegian E68 & E76 road systems.

 Their general plan was to travel to the area of Valders, thence across the Fillefjell Pass to Sognefjorden and Hardangerfjorden, in the region of Bergen. They would then complete the round trip to Christiania, via Haukeli and Kongsberg. This latter part of the tour began on 29th of August, the last date recorded in the diary, when the Goschs departed from Odda, at the head of Sorfjorden. The diary does not record when they returned to London, but it is assumed their holiday was completed during the last two weeks of September.

Allowing for minor discrepancies, we now know their tour inside Norway covered somewhere in the region of 850 to 900 miles (1368-1448 kilometres). More specifically, they travelled in excess of 200 miles by boat, 300 miles by rail, and in the region of 350 miles by horse and carriage, as well as foot. This was all accomplished as far as is known, in a period of some five to six weeks.

92pp ISBN 0-9539369-8-8 : Price £5.50

This title may be obtained by

Keith Mitchell, 127 Morriston Road, Elgin, IV30 4NB (or)
via email enquiry to enquiry@scottishfamilyheritage.co.uk

please add postage as follows: -

UK 2nd class post (£1.00), Europe (£1.50), Australasia Air Mail (£2.25) & North America Air Mail (£2.25).

All in Sterling with cheques payable to - Keith Mitchell