The bengal Merchant: relations, order and authority

Abstract

This thesis examines six written records (four journals, one published travel account, and a letter) that survive from the 1839-1840 New Zealand Company voyage of the Bengal Merchant from Greenock, Scotland, to Port Nicholson, New Zealand. Individuals in first class, intermediate, and steerage class write the voyage accounts. Using the information contained in the records, the experience of both individuals and groups (their pleasures, fears, and the monotony of shipboard life on the Bengal Merchant) are examined. This study is about particular aspects of that experience: order, authority, space, play, upheaval, and containment. This thesis concludes that emigrant ships were complex social environments dependent on formal and informal mechanisms to ensure order and control were maintained. The social systems carried by the Bengal Merchant from the old world to the new were dynamic in nature but did not emerge unchanged from the long ocean voyage. Adaptation to the shipboard environment required a considerable degree of flexibility and latitude by passengers, crew, and officers. If actions offended the values of the passengers, or ran contrary to the interests of those in authority, clashes (physical and verbal) were inevitable. A variety of measures were put in place to control any potential disruptions, including the physical partitioning of single males and females, control of passenger and crew movement, and strict rules to govern behaviour. Social order was maintained by more than a formal system of regulations, however. Cooperation on the part of individuals and groups was required if the voyage was to be harmonious and relatively peaceful. Release, in the form of novelties and entertainments, was found in the surrounding environment, and novelties such as Crossing the Line ceremony and a boat race were welcomed by all. The experience of travelling on a small ship, halfway around the world, bonded the passengers together, even after their arrival in New Zealand. The 'voyage out' caused a small tear in the social fabric and may have contributed to the development of the egalitarian society we know today.