Recently, we received an email from a member of the public enquiring about an ancestor of theirs who was a non-conformist Reverend in Dorchester for some years, James McClune Uffen. We found some papers and a photograph within the Dorchester Congregational Church collection (NP.5), which included a fascinating journal detailing a journey he took from Dorchester to New Zealand in 1911 (NP.5/MS/2/2).
We thought that this journal would be an excellent document to write about for our blog. Although it is only 16 pages long, it is full of fascinating insights into what it was like to undertake this massive expedition in the early 1900’s.
His journey began in Dorchester on the 2nd June 1911, and it seems that he left with a heavy heart. He starts his diary,
‘On the morning of this day I left Dorchester where many a loving people I had spent over twenty years of my life. Many were on the Railway platform to bid me a final goodbye’.
The first step of his trip was to travel by train to Shrewsbury, with a couple of stops along the way at Poole and Bournemouth. He admits that as the train pulled away from Dorchester station ‘I broke down’. He met some old friends in Shrewsbury,
‘the conviction that I was not returning to Dorchester so broke in upon me that I could not speak’.
On 7 June, James travelled to London to complete all the arrangements for his journey. The 9 June was the day he finally stepped on board the ship named ‘Ruahine’ that would be his home for nearly two months.
The Ruahine’s first stop was Plymouth, which James describes as his ‘native place’. James writes ‘The passage to Plymouth was very delightful the sea smooth and the sunshine very bright’. They arrived on the 10th June, and James’ cabin companion came on board. His first impressions of him were positive,
‘I saw and felt that he would be pleasant company’.
That night they left Plymouth, and the United Kingdom to embark on the mammoth journey to the other side of the world.
If you are interested in learning more about Reverend James McCune Uffen’s journey, keep your eyes peeled for our next blog instalment which will look at some of the exotic places he visited on his voyage.