Leaving

Margaret stood silently with her sister Anne gazing in awe at the hulking ship rising and falling gently at its mooring on the Liverpool quayside. Margaret’s hand trembled as she reached out to grasp her sister’s in a gesture designed to reassure, herself or her sister, she was not really sure.

The ‘Marion’ was the largest vessel she had ever set eyes on.  A huge ship so different from the compact Steamer on the crossing from Dublin to Liverpool.  Three huge masts soared heavenward and the proud bow sprit pointed toward the harbour entrance, follow me to South Australia, it beckoned.  If Margaret closed her eyes she could just about see the square rigged sails straining in the wind carrying her away from the dirty over crowded wharf across a beautiful deep blue ocean she had only ever seen in pictures.  Of course she knew this was only her imagination at work and she quickly crossed her fingers to hold the day dream like a wish.

A sudden push from behind broke the spell of her musings, ‘move along Ladies, steerage boarding that way’ pointed a uniformed arm and a  deep gravelly voice, before it and its owner, disappeared in the opposite direction.  Following the direction, Margaret and Anne pushed their way through the throng of other young men and women to the bottom of the gangway, fears forgotten for the moment in the overpowering excitement of the jostling crowd.

Bibliography

‘Immigrants to South Australia, (UK, assisted passage) 1847-1886’, 2014, The Ships List, http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/marion1854.shtml accessed 3 December 2015 ‘Liverpool and emigration in the 19^th and 20^th centuries’ information sheet 64, 2008, National Museums Liverpool, http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/sheet/64 accessed 3 December 2015

 ‘Southward Bound’ Resource package, n.d., S. A. Maritime Museum, http://education.maritime.history.sa.gov.au/docs/southwardbound.pdf accessed 3 December 2015