 Time Line: 1858: Francis bapt: 14 Jan 1838 in St Nicholas, Guildford, Surrey was son of WILLIAM HARRISON Mother: FRANCES. Francis was the first of the Harrison family to immigrate to New Zealand. Aged 20Y, Frank boarded the wooden English ship"Strathallan", on 15th October 1858 at Gravesend - 551 tons, captained by W. R. Williamson, and after a voyage of 81 days, he arrived at Timaru.
Without a harbour, the ship anchored in the roadstead 3 miles out from Timaru from where the very boisterous weather allowed only some of her 120 passengers to be landed. The next day, all Timaru passengers and their baggage were lashore and the ship left the same evening for Lyttelton with it's remaining immigrants. The wool-shed belonging to Mr Rhodes had been made ready for lodging the party and Rhodes engaged all with a fortnight's immediate employmentwith scarcely an exception,Frank was employed as a carpenter and he was listed as a contributor £2.2/- to the building of St Marys Church in June 1859 This diary written by J. A. Young tells of the view that greeted the Strathallen: Studding sails set again. Land seen on the port bow about 11 a.m., between 30 and 40 miles distant. NEW ZEALAND! 35 miles from land at noon. 2 p.m., mist and light rain, land down again. 3 p.m., chains of high mountains on the port bow. Land continually rising ahead. 4 p.m., more very high mountains just rising. Long, being made fast in the fore rigging, drew his knife and threatened to stab little Jimmy the sailor. Ten thousand mountains towering far above the clouds, some of them covered with eternal snow, but all barren and desolate, not a sign of human being or human works. Thousands of little red lobsters the size of shrimps, and jelly star fish. One of each caught. Gnats, butterflies, and dragonflies flying about at 9 a.m. All the studding sails set at night. 6 a.m., sailing under closereefed fore and main topsails and standing jib. Half-past eight, more sail again. Half-past ten, made signal for a pilot. More mountains, the high ones crowned with snow. A point ahead which we are trying to round. Heavy tide running in-shore. Our cake stolen. TIMARU AT LAST! Five houses in sight. A boat comes off with six men. They come on board and the boat is smashed against the side. Spanish Joe, the sailor, gets a ducking in slinging the boat for lifting. Shoals of porpoises round the ship. Riding with one anchor and a gale of wind blowing. Sent down all the royal yards. No accommodation for the immigrants A queer look out! The water since the morning of the 12th of a brilliant green. Several of the immigrants engaged. One short ale is 2s 6d per bottle, rum 9d a glass, tobacco 4s 6d a pound, a sheep for £1 or £1 5s. The wind took off in the night and freshened again this morning. Another boat came alongside last night at 12 with seven men to look after the others. Very cold wind. Ship rolling all day in the ground swell. Served out provisions today for full week for Lyttelton; two days for Timaru. Boat left at half-past 4 p.m. (Sunday). Boat came alongside at 6 a.m. with seven men, bringing off a live sheep, a leg of mutton and some grog. Hove the anchor chain straight up and down before 8 a.m. Old Jimmy pitched into the black cook and the boatswain followed suit. All in confusion. Beautiful morning, warm sun. Made sail and stood further in and anchored in 9 fathoms. The boatswain went on to the poop and made a noise and got put into irons. Had fresh mutton for dinner in the forecastle. Radishes and new potatoes brought on board. Commenced landing passengers.... Finished landing passengers. J A Young wrote: "We arrived off Timaru on January 14th, 1859, and lay off a good distance from the shore. The first persons to come on board were Mr. Woollcombe, Captain Cain, and old Sam Williams. Their boat was made fast so that it got under the stern of our ship and was broken. Mr. Woollcombe came into the cabin and asked me where the captain was. I called the captain and he brought out his papers. I wondered who this man was. I saw another (Captain Cain this was) standing outside, and I went and asked him who the man inside was, and he said it was the Resident Magistrate. Well, I thought to myself, if that is the Resident Magistrate, we have come to a queer place. It was his dress that amused me. He wore a blue serge jumper, moleskin trousers tied at the knee and turned up at the bottom, and heavy Cookham boots yellow to the top with clay. I learned afterwards that he had been building a cob whare, and had been puddling the clay by tramping it. The next boat brought two sheep for the cabin from Mr Rhodes. . . . There were plenty of vegetables for those who landed on the first day. Myself, wife and two children landed by the last boat but one, and we found that those who had landed before us had had the best of the good things provided. Strong Work Morrison was the steer-oarsman of the boat we came ashore in. As soon as we landed we looked for quarters and found that the only place unoccupied was Mr Rhodes's shed for storing wool. I went up two or three tiers of bales, and selected the top of two bales. We fixed up a screen of shawls and blankets and made ourselves as comfortable as we could. As soon as a stir was made next morning I looked over the top of our screen at the scene below. What a sight! There were men in from the bush to welcome us, with buckets of port wine and rum, and they were ladling it out in pannikins to anyone who would partake of it.' There were only four or five houses in the place, which was all covered with native tussock. Sam Williams had an accommodation house on the beach, near the wool shed, and they were then adding to a lean-to which had a licence (now the Royal Hotel) .. . . Captain Cain was living in a cob house on the hillside, where Turnbull and Co.'s brick store is, at the back of Mee's office. Dr Butler had a small one-roomed house at the back of what is now the Crown Hotel.'
      
 
and replace # with @ in my address. All pages have
Sound |
