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ARRIVAL OF THE TUGELA Natal Mercury February 28 1865

This vessel was one of Rennie's Aberdeen Direct clippers, most of them under 500 tons. The ships of this line took from 49 to 95 days to make the passage direct from London to Durban. On this voyage, under Captain STUART, the Tugela departed Dec 11 1864 and arrived at Natal Feb 24 1865. According to a report elsewhere in the same edition of the Mercury, the journey had been very much protracted by foul winds. She had been within 250 miles of Natal twelve days before her arrival, but had to wait for a change of wind in order to make the Port. "She brings an addition to our population of more than a hundred souls ... Eighty of them came out under Government auspices ... and they seem a happy and very respectable party of settlers."

Note the division of the list into Cabin, Second and Third Cabins and Government Emigrants - but at least the latter are individually named, which wasn't always the case in newspaper columns.

The Government passengers wrote a letter to the Surgeon on board the Tugela, Dr J WRIGHT MATTHEWS, signed by all of them, expressing their gratitude and appreciation for his "assiduous attention", affording them the benefits of his medical skill during the voyage and the alacrity with which he had answered every call in case of sickness. The saloon passengers wrote a similarly congratulatory letter to the Captain, expressing themselves fortunate "in our vessel, in the officers and crew" as well as the Captain himself, and that "should we have again to commit ourselves to the perils of the deep, may we have the good fortune to meet with so good a ship and so excellent a commander."

This polite and pleasant custom of a letter of thanks to the Captain was a feature of the earlier voyages, before the anonymity of many sailings and numerous Captains rendered such expressions obsolete.

Feb 24, Tugela, ship, 476 tons, GR Stuart, from London, sailed Dec 11.
PASSENGERS
Cabin
Mr and Mrs Fraser
Mr CT Saner
Mr N Briggs
Mr J Pinchin
Mrs Anne M Jones
Messrs WM H and George P Jones
MR I Bond
Mr Ebenezer Pearse
Mr Henry Winter
Mr G Westray
Mr R Acutt
Dr JW Matthews
Second and Third Cabins
Mr G Hyde
Mr C Thompson
Mr and Mrs Wood
Messrs
Swiften
R Wood
WJ Minchinton
Jas Bonifant
Edmund Edgar
Geo Platt
Alfred Adams
CT Wordsworth
Jas Liddall
Government Emigrants
Miss Anandale
Christopher, Elizabeth and Charlotte Allen
Robert Beck
Martha, Emily, John, James and Willliam Baxter
Emma Boyer
John Brower
Ebenezer Crowley
James Craggs
Elizabeth and William Child
Alex, Christina and Ann Chadwick
Eliza and Jas Duggin
Joh, Margaret, William and Thomas Elgin
Ann, Theophilus, and Robert Gregory
John, Mary, Louisa, Rachael and Emma Green
Edith Gillett
David and James Guthrie
H Hill
Jabez Hall and wife
George Hill
Jane Hunter
Francis Wm Hill
Jane Kelly
James and Margaret Kerr
Henry Lee
Harriett A Lane
Charles G Levy
Anne and A Mc Roberts
David Munro
Thos Osborne
Richard Pigeon
William, Mary A and Thomas Palframan
William Rocket
Henry Roberts
Mary St Leger
F Southam
Francis Spinklewood
Richard, Mary, Ellen, Sarah, Richard, and Fredk Stone
S, Edith, Henry, William and Sarah Wood
Margaret Thompson
Agnes Wright
H Wood,
Muirhead, Findlay and Co, agents.

Feb 24, Prince Alfred, barque, 258 tons, Airth, from London. General cargo.
PASSENGERS
Cabin
Mr and Mrs Colevile and five children
Miss Cutting
Miss Williams
Mr Rolls
Muirhead, Findlay and Co, agents.

Feb 26, Flora, schr., 113 tons, Spalding, from London, sailed Dec 9.
Jno Brown, agent.

Feb 26, Gordon, barque, 151 tons, A Watson, from London, sailed Dec 9.
PASSENGER
Mr Alfred Bennett Gordon
John Brown, agent.