Lorna's family forest - Voyage of the "William Davie" (1872)

Intro

Without this voyage, many of us would not exist.
William HENDERSON and Helen Sinton WIGHT would be rather unlikely to have met if William had not followed several of his siblings to New Zealand in 1872.
New Zealand must have met with HENDERSON approval, as his parents, and all bar one of his siblings ended up in NZ by 1875.
William was the only HENDERSON family member obvious on the assisted passenger list for this voyage, although there were several other single men from Lanarkshire.

Great Granddad William HENDERSON plotted many of the daily Lat/Long values the passengers must have been given:

Follow the voyage of the William Davie click on each balloon for dates and any descriptions

William's diary

William's notebook

The voyage begins

penultimate pages of William's diary

Final page

Assisted passenger documents from National Archives

The official documents included here are held in the National Archives, Wellington, New Zealand and are available online in the Family Search collection "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973".

"for Otago sailed 10 Apr 1872"

"arrived Wellington 8th Jul 1872"

Index of assisted passengers

Single men

Totals

Summary

Compare and contrast officialdom vs William's diary.
He thinks he arrived in Port Chalmers.
The frontespiece of the Archives documents on the assisted passengers thinks they arrived in Wellington (although the front cover does say "for Otago").

One of many newspaper reports of their safe arrival

Fuller report of voyage and cargo

The two newspaper reports included are from PapersPast and are just two of the many, more or less identical, reports in assorted papers across New Zealand.
One of the more interesting items mentioning the "William Davie" around this time was public correspondence via the newspapers between the Agent-General for New Zealand and the agent for Patrick Henderson and Co. about the cost per immigrant for shipping via Greenock as opposed to London.
Some responses saw this as the death knell of Scottish immigration into Otago.

Names Mentioned

Although not exactly rich in detail, William's diary does mention some names, all listed below:

Captain Brotchie	two ministers, "one who is to accompany the ship, and a captain Brotchie who gave the passengers a very interesting exhortation before leaving"
Mr Davies	two children belonging to a Mr Davies from Staffordshire in England have taken the measles
Rev Mr Stewart	Minister of the ship
Martin	"a young woman taken to the hospital with measles named Martin from Stranraer in Ayrshire"
Hugh Mcmillan	"worship conducted after 8 pm by Hugh Mcmillan a native of Ireland" in brackets ?with ?? men) "who has taken that work upon him to do every night the minister is not present assisted by Wm Sinclair from Orkney who are both passengers among the young men"
Mr Murray	"a Minister who is a cabin passenger"
Peter Clive	"one of the young men taken to the hospital with measles named Peter Clive from the Parish of Glenlif Ayrshire"
George Menzies	from Leadhills Lanarkshire editor the Ocean Times
W Henderson	Sub editor Ocean Times
John Coll	two of his children in hospital with measles "Mr John Coll a native of Ireland"
Mrs Neil	three of her children in hospital with measles "Mrs Neil from Overtown Lanarkshire"
McInnes	"a young lad named Mcinnes fell down the trap of the hatchway and having a tin full of hot tea carrying it was spilt on his face, breast & arm's & scalded him"
Mr Millar	"our worthy doctor Mr Millar was soon in attendance and dressed the wounds"
David Neil	"grandson of Mrs Neil died at 2 o'clock aged 16 months. Another girl of Mrs Neils and another belonging to John Coll are in the hospital with measles"
Mr Stewart	preached service 10:15 am last verse revelations 21st ch
Ann Hay & Jane McMahon	"bride" and "groom" in mock marriage ( the single women have been confined to separate quarters since Apr 11th) Celebrations afterwards included the only fiddler on board, William
Mr Austen	"Mr Austin & myself we have got one each called cape pigeons"
John Dixon	"one of the young men named John Dixon is nearly wrong in his mind. Has been asking a pistol from some of them to shoot himself"
(John Dixon)	"the young man is confined to the hospital he was living with the young men but I think he will be about 40 years of age" (archives records show a 34 yr old cooper John DICKSON from Lanarkshire amongst the single men)
Tom Neil	"a young boy named Tom Neil fell out of his bed upon a bottle & cut his chin very much the doctor had to sew it"

BMD data on all rellies

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