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150 Years in Australia
Bound for South Australia
Bound for South Australia
Not a lot is known about the life of Malen and Alice in England but a letter from Walter Rumbelow (a grandson of Malen’s brother Thomas) to an Australian cousin in 1952 does give some clue.
Walter heard from his father (who was not born until 1846, so the information was second hand) that “Uncle Malen only had one eye but could see and tell the time by the Mildenhall church clock better than normal people. Uncle Malen went to Australia because poor people were so badly off at that time they could hardly get a living”.
Malen Rumbelow (Malen 1st) was born in West Row, near Mildenhall, Suffolk England on 29th March 1812, the 6th child of Robert and Sarah Rumbelow.
Malen, a labourer, married Alice Pitches in 1831 and they had 9 children before deciding to sail to South Australia aboard the barque Pestonjee-Bomanjee.
Malen’s oldest sister Mary had married Mark Last, and two of their sons (Mark, aged 27 and Joseph, aged 20) left England for Australia in 1851. The two nephews may have sent reports back from the colony which encouraged Malen and Alice to take the courageous step that changed their lives forever.
A journal was kept of the voyage that was supposedly written by Malen Rumbelow, but as he signed his name with a cross when he married, it is assumed that he could not write, and careful reading of the diary suggests that either Mr Mackrill, a schoolmaster or an unnamed shoemaker were the authors. The diary painted a vivid picture of the magnitude of the experience and is reproduced in its entirety overleaf. The entries have been typed from a yellowed typed copy and the grammar and spelling have not been altered.
However, how much is from the original, and how much resulted from changes made when the original was converted to a typed copy, is not known.
Route taken by Pestonjee Bomajee shown dashed. Coltons Atlas of the World by Goerge W Colton. New York, 1856
A Matter of Course
A Matter of Course
A special mention must be made for the generous assistance of Mr Michael O’Leary, retired naval navigator (Second Mate).
Michael plotted the course taken by the Pestonjee Bomajee from the diary entries in the journals kept of the voyage.
Michael plied the very waters that Malen his family journeyed across as a merchant seaman for some 10 years, before retiring from the sea to raise a family in Australia.
Michael, a former colleague of Denis Rumbelow, is still attached to the University of South Australia where he conducts navigation courses, particularly celestial navigation for which he is well renowned.
In reviewing the diaries kept of the voyage, Micheal noted that he had seen many of the amazing sights that greeted Malen and his fellow passengers, including the flying fish and phosophorus lights unique to the waters of the equatorial North Atlantic.
Letter of Dispatch, dated 13h June 1854.
Coutesty of the resarch by Richard Barrows.
Immigration Report, dated 9th October 1854. Coutesty of the resarch by Richard Barrows.
The barque Pestonjee Bomajee
A ship of 595 Ton, built at Dumbarton in 1834
by Waddell & Co. Class A1. 130’ x 31’ 6” x 22’
Arrived at Glenelg South Australia on 12th Oct 1838 with Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler of London, to take up his position of Governor of the new state.
Transported convicts in 1845, 1847, 1849, & 1852 to Tasmania.
Became a 3 masted barque, ON6107, owned by J & F Somes, London.
Arrived Adelaide 7th October 1854 from Southampton 18th June 1854, Captain Montgomery.
(Register 9th Oct.1854) The 344 souls on board when she left
Southampton included:
1 Captain
1 Doctor
1 Cook
3 Mates
1 Steward
10 Seamen
20 Lascars
1 Carpenter
73 Married couples
53 Single women
14 Single men
93 Children
from Ronald Parsons’ “Southern Passages” Wakefield Press, 1986 and “Migrant ships for South Australia 1836-1860” Gould Books, 1988.
Bound for South Australia
In South Australia I was born,
Heave away, haul away,
In South Australia round Cape Horn
We’re bound for South Australia.
Chorus (after each verse):
Haul away, you rolling king,
Heave away, haul away,
Haul away, oh hear me sing,
We’re bound for South Australia.
As I walked out one morning fair,
Heave away, haul away,
There I met Miss Nancy Blair,
We’re bound for South Australia.
Oh, when we wallop around Cape Horn,
Heave away, haul away,
You’ll wish to God you’d never been born,
We’re bound for South Australia.
I wish I was on Australian shores,
Heave away, haul away,
With a bottle of whiskey in me paw,
For we’re bound for South Australia.
A version of this classic sea shanty was collected by Laura Smith from sailors in Tyneside and printed in her The Music of the Waters in 1888.
Contrary to the jolly nature of such songs, shipboard life in the early days was miserable indeed. A particular favourite as a farewell song, sung to accompany the work of lifting the anchor.
- Courtesy of Reinhard Zierke. Lyrics copied from Mark Gregory’s Australian Folk Songs
“Far away-- oh far away--
We seek a world o’er the ocean spray!
We seek a land across the sea,
Where bread is plenty and men are free,
The sahe breezes swell--
England, our country, farewell! farewell!”
The Lascars
The now outmoded word “Lascar” comes
from an ancient Persian word Lashkar
which, meaning an army, was later applied
to a soldier and, in the course of time, to a
sailor.
A “lascar” was officially defined as “an Asiatic
seaman, native of the British Empire,”
but the term was also applied to the many
seafaring inhabitants of East Africa. Most
of these were the Christian inhabitants of
Goa, in Portuguese East Africa, who excel as
ship’s cooks.
The majority of lascars came of seafaring
families living on the coasts of Bengal, Burma,
and Ceylon, or the Gulf of the Cutch, in
the Maldive and Laccadive Islands. In the
second half of the 18th Century they arrived
in the wharfs of London as part of the crews
of the ships of the Hon. East India Company.
Here they became prey to the sailortown
harpies and sharks of Wapping and Shadwell.
Ignorant of western city life, the plight
of the Asians adrift in London was pitiable.
Friendless and forlorn, they were often
reduced to street begging until, months
later, the time came for them to make the
return passage.
- This article was transcribed from the Port
of London Authority Monthly, December
1957. Courtesy of www.lascar.co.uk
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