Working in the Outposts of Empire
In 1855 the painter Ford Madox Brown produced The Last of England, a picture showing a young couple on board ship, wrapped in thick winter clothing, looking back at the receding shores of their native land. The work was influenced by the emigration of their friend Thomas Woolner, who had gone to start a new life in Australia. Brown saw such a journey as being unpleasant in many ways, including the problem of coarse fellow-travellers. He wrote a poem with the words, ‘Low ribaldry from sots, and… rough cheer/with rudely-nurtured men’.
Researching, and imagining our forebears boarding those ships and heading out into the vast oceans of the Earth, presents us with an awesome vision of the human trials and deprivations such journeys entailed. They were heading out into the unknown, with only their strength and skills to offer for their survival. They were empire-builders in vast, often empty places, territories which were very little developed. It was a great adventure and there must have been a frightening mix of apprehension and excitement in their hearts.
Peopling the empire
It was the kind of journey that thousands had endured before then.
Useful archives
• www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/
• https://lists.rootsweb.com
• www.ellisisland.org
Explore shipping lists & lines
• www.benjidog.co.uk/Allen – This is the site for the history and description of the Scottish Shire Line, which includes the Federal-Houlder-Line
• www.theshipslist.com/ships – The Ships List is an essential source. It comprises passenger lists, fleet lists, ship descriptions, marriage at sea, famine emigrants and other resource lists. The place of the various lines which sprang from the Turnbull Martin company (mentioned on page 38) is explained here.
• www.liverpool.ac.uk/library/sca/
As early
