Who Do You Think You Are?

Brunel Institute (SS Great Britain)

Imogen Dickens, internatio­nal project officer at SS Great Britain Trust, tells Liz Palmer about a teenage diarist

- IMOGEN DICKENS is the internatio­nal project officer at the SS Great Britain Trust

The SS Great Britain, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s iron steamer, was the world’s largest ship when she launched in 1843. However, following a grounding and financial problems Great Western Steamship Company sold her for salvage. After a refit, the vessel was put into service on the England to Australia route by her new owners, Anthony Gibbs & Sons. Gold had been discovered in Victoria in 1851 and demand for passage to the colony was soaring. On 21 August 1852, SS Great Britain set sail from Liverpool bound for Melbourne and Sydney. In steerage, a teenage passenger kept a diary of this historic voyage.

This month, Imogen Dickens tells us about the diary and what it can reveal to us about life on board and the range of passengers making this historic journey.

Which document have you chosen?

I’ve chosen Allan Gilmour’s diary, a 17-year-old third-class passenger who travelled to Melbourne in 1852 with his father and younger brother. Like the ship herself, this was Allan’s first trip to Australia.

In this immaculate­ly kept diary, Allan gives the reader a detailed account of life aboard. He penned over 17,000 words on the 83-day voyage and drew plans of the layout of the steerage area of the ship which were used in the recreation of the ship interiors. Among other things, Allan writes about eating porridge, taking cold plunge baths in barrels on deck and attending church services in the first-class dining saloon.

What does it reveal about our ancestors?

This diary tells a surprising story of a literate teenager, travelling with his family in the thirdcabin. In the SS Great Britain Collection, there are many diaries from the first-cabin that depict daily life, but there are fewer from the third where literacy rates would have been lower.

Allan’s family history has been traced using census records and local newspapers. They reveal he wasn’t the typical steerage passenger heading out to dig for gold. Instead, his father planned to set up a shop in Melbourne. Due to the discovery of gold in the area the previous year, the population of the colony had tripled in size and services such as shops and transport were greatly needed. The Gilmour family ran a failed Glasgow gingham and cotton business, which had become unprofitab­le due to an economic depression. The family travelled in steerage only to save money.

Allan’s tale debunks one of the many myths surroundin­g immigratio­n to Australia; Allan is not an illiterate criminal heading to the colony, but a well-educated young man. The diversity of the steerage class was a popular topic among his fellow passengers. Other diaries that have survived, include the Diary of an Anonymous Quaker, which tells a similar tale of an educated Bristolian travelling in economy class. He mentions that the passengers in steerage “were a curious collection comprising English, Irish, Scotch, French, Swiss, Germans, Hungarians, Americans and Jews of all nations”. An ex-Polish military arm officer was in the mix too.

Unfortunat­ely, the Gilmour’s Australian adventure was short-lived: Allan’s father died soon after they arrived. As a minor, Allan couldn’t take over the business and he returned to the UK with his younger brother, Matthew. Although Allan’s escapades in Melbourne weren’t entirely successful, his time in the city broadened his horizons. Immigratio­n records show that he spent the rest of his life flitting between the United States and the UK as a tobacco merchant. He ended his days in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The SS Great Britain Trust is carrying out an Art Council England-funded project which will reveal some of the personal tales of the 30,000 passengers and crew. The stories will be available to view online. Allan’s story provides a window into steerage class in 1852 and shows that it is impossible to generalise the passengers’ reasons for travelling.

Why did you choose this specific document?

Although Allan Gilmour’s diary was written over 150 years ago, the excitement felt by the teenager is extremely relatable. It is clear from the care he puts into keeping his diary, with his incredibly neat writing, that he saw the journey as pioneering and worth documentin­g. The diaries give an unexpected voice to a range of diverse passengers and crew who otherwise might not have been remembered. It reveals aspects of the ship’s life that wouldn’t have been recorded in official logs such as the different entertainm­ent on board and the gossip of the fellow passengers.

When I read Allan’s diary, I’m captivated by his account of life on board, such as the relentless­ly changing weather. Mapping Allan’s descriptio­ns of weather to the position of the ship helps bring the voyage to life. He describes the unbearable heat as they sail through the Canary Islands as well as the rapidly darkening seas and raging gales off the coast of Mauritania.

The diaries are my favourite objects in the collection as they document what the passengers did to keep themselves occupied during the two-month voyage. Much like today, the diarists write about the weather food, entertainm­ent, and their fellow passengers. Boarding a ship in the 19th century must have been a scary but an exciting prospect, and the diaries help give a sense of these varying emotions.

Tell us more about your collection­s…

The Brunel Institute is a collaborat­ion between the University of Bristol and the SS Great Britain Trust. We care for over 60,000 objects relating to maritime history, the Brunel family and the SS Great Britain herself, who sits nearby in her original dry dock.

Highlights of the collection include diaries, letters, photos and souvenirs of passengers and crew from the SS Great Britain. We even have a surviving piece of food which would have been served in the form of a ship’s biscuit, saved by the Rowland family who travelled on the ship in 1874. We also hold the largest collection of Brunel material in the world, some of which will be displayed in the new museum, Being Brunel, which will open to the public in February 2018.

The Brunel Institute is open Tuesday – Friday and the first two Saturdays of the month and is free for all to use. Our Archive in Five sessions dig deeper into selected objects from our collection.

It reveals aspects of the ship’s life that wouldn’t have been recorded in official logs

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Who Do You Think You Are?

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