THE JOURNEY BEGINS
The Duchess of Northumberland slowly weighed anchor and pulled away from the wharf at London. The passengers looked back to the shore and thought of their past. This balmy, late summer day was one full of promise. Today, Tuesday 6th of August 1839, was the first day of their new lives. This was the beginning of a long sea journey which was to take them to a land that they had heard about and that they believed would hold a better life for themselves and their children. Excitement and apprehension filled the air, as the immigrants to Australia contemplated what had been and was to come.

As the shouts of the crew echoed over the ship and the sails unfurled many of the passengers on board would have been unaware of the perils that lay ahead over the 135-day voyage. Assisted passengers were housed in the steerage section of the ship. Here, in the midships, the conditions were cramped with four passengers often having an area of little more than six feet square to share. The bunk in which they lived also was the storage place for their personal belongings. On each deck there were bunks two high with a total head height of seven feet. Stowed under the bottom layer of bunks were all the heavy possessions of the passengers. In these cramped conditions everyday life, for the families, had to proceed with some form of 'normality'. The single women were housed together, in the stern of the ship as far removed from the crew's living quarters, in the bow, as possible. Having to spend such a long time together, in these cramped conditions, placed a heavy burden on family relationships.

This ship took its passengers and crew slowly out of the Thames River through the Strait of Dover, into the English Channel then beyond the Bay of Bisque. It then went out into the Atlantic Ocean. Here it turned southwards and followed down the East Coast of Africa. The weather at this time of year was hot and humid, making life for the heavily dressed emigrants even more uncomfortable. The ship broke its journey at Cape Town, to gather in fresh supplies before rounding the infamous Cape of Good Hope.

For many the conditions on board ship were almost intolerable, the women had access to water closets (toilets) but the male passengers had to use the upper decks for their daily ablutions. Many passengers were too afraid to take the recommended daily exercise above the decks, which compounded the claustrophobic conditions below decks. This along with the necessity to batten down the hatches and leave passengers below during days of relentless storms also caused many health problems. These cramped and unhealthy conditions may have lead to John and Ann Fisher's daughter Anna contracting diarrhoea, at the tender age of one year (she died on September 13th, 1839. This sad event was somewhat lessened by the arrival of their first son, Thomas, on 27 October 1839.