The Voyage Of The Mystery In 1854
The Mystery was, in 1854… The smallest sailing boat ever to have completed the journey to Australia. The first fishing boat to carry Her Majesty’s’ Mail to Australia, it is said that this was because the mail boat was running ten days late. The smallest immigrant boat to arrive in Australia. Other boats tried the long voyage and most were never seen again.
The Story of The Mystery Voyage…
Much has been written on the emigration of Cornish miners during the last century to the United States and other mining settlements abroad; it seems however less widely recognized that many other classes of workers, fishermen, agricultural laborers and tradesmen – also joined the great exodus overseas.
This group of emigrants did not, in the main, join the colonies of miners, but dispersed among the general population of their adopted countries, and so have been lost to view to Cornish historians. Many interesting tales, nonetheless, could be told of this latter group of expatriates.
One of the best of them concerns the voyage made by seven Cornish fishermen from Penzance to Melbourne in a 16-ton fishing boat called the Mystery, during 1854-5. It was a journey made without any of the publicity attending the recent adventures of round-the-world yachtsmen, in an ordinary fishing boat having neither radio nor any of the sophisticated navigational aids available today.
One must regard it as a truly heroic exploit; yet the men who took part in the voyage would probably have been surprised to hear it described in those terms. It so happens that one of them – P. C. Mathews – wrote a tantalizingly brief account of their odyssey in 1874 in order to correct a garbled version of it which a Penzance newspaper gave in an obituary notice of another member of the crew, Charles Boase, of Newlyn.
Plainly written as the story is, it requires the exercise of no great imagination to appreciate the sterling qualities of the men and the boat which made this remarkable voyage:
“We left Mount’s Bay on the morning of the 18th of November 1854, with a crew of seven men – Richard Nicholls, Job Kelynack, Richard Badcock, William Badcock, Lewis Lewis, Charles Boase and myself.
Our cargo consisted principally of provisions and water. On March 14th 1855, we cast anchor in Hobson’s Bay, Melbourne, thus accomplishing the voyage in 115 days, including seven days’ stoppage at the Cape of Good Hope, where we put in for a supply of water.
We were eight days from England to Madeira, and on the 35th day out we made the Island of Trinidad. On the morning of the 17th of January 1855, we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, being 59 days out. On January 24th, at 6 p.m., we got underway from Cape town and proceeded on our voyage with H.M. mails on board. Nothing interfered with our progress until February 18th, in lat. 4o.5 S., long. S2.5 E., where we encountered a very heavy gale, which necessitated our riding to a raft for nine or ten hours. Riding to a raft is a system adopted for safety. Ships heave-to under such circumstances.
On February 23rd, another heavy gale visited us at lat. 39.57 S., long. 98 E. We again rode to a raft for four or five hours. On the 5th March we met with another very heavy gale in lat. 4o S., long.129.19 E., which compelled us to ride to a raft for 12 to 14 hours. The weather was pretty favorable after that date until we got to our destination.
The Mystery was 33 ft. long and 11 ft. 6 in. beam. It is said that before setting out on their voyage the fishermen decked her, as she had previously been an open boat. On arriving at Melbourne, they sold her, and found various kinds of employment for themselves. Of the seven, five eventually returned to their native home. Of the two who remained in that country, Lewis Lewis died in Castlemaine, whilst Mathews settled in Melbourne.
Nicholls, the captain, after making many other voyages, and on the point of starting from London on another, was knocked down by a dray and killed.