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The Voyage of the "Lady Grey"

Geoffrey A. T. Lightband

We are grateful for permission to print this extract from the late Mr Lightband's typescript of the history of his family in New Zealand.

The voyage of the "Lady Grey" was undoubtedly the most remarkable and adventurous of the three that we are concerned with. Unlike the other two voyages on a standard "large" emigrant ship, this was a wholly private venture, set up by three determined families — Brent. Lock and Curtis — who left Prince Edward Island on the 26 November 1854 and reached Nelson on the 26 July 1855, a voyage which lasted 242 days in all.

Unfortunately, the vessel's Log has not been found but we have a graphic and, it seems, a reliable account of the voyage by Mr W. Lock, son of the pioneer, which was published by the "Examiner". This reads as follows:—

"It appears that the owners, or at least two of them, Messrs Brent and Lock, who both had families and were desirous of emigrating to Nelson, New Zealand, either built or purchased the vessel Lady Grey, which according to an entry in the Nelson Customs, was a schooner of 60 tons register. Mr Brent was a fine man who I understand was a master builder, and had a wife and family. The latter I do not know the number of, but I well remember two sons and one daughter and this daughter was later married to Mr Lightband who lived at Brightwater.

"My parents had no less than four children when they arrived here. Mr Curtis and a young man named George Hooper also came by the vessel. Since looking up some old papers. I have formed the opinion that the owners did not build the vessel but purchased her. The whole party had a good reputation for honesty and probity, and probably for piety as they were all good Methodists or Wesleyans at that time.

"The crew at the time of sailing comprised a captain, a mate and three seamen. The others on board were the owners, Messrs Brent, Lock and Curtis and a young man named George Hooper. The vessel left Prince Edward Island for Boston with a cargo of timber, and there secured provisions for the long voyage. She then returned to P.E.I. where she remained for three weeks, sailing on the 26 November 1854 for New Zealand. On the third night out a terrific storm was experienced, but the vessel escaped with little damage. She called at San Jago Island and remained there for one week, took on fresh water and continued the voyage without calling at any other port until reaching King George Sound (South Australia). She remained there for about 14 days, replenished the fresh water supply, and took in about 3000 kangaroo skins, and twelve passengers, and sailed for Adelaide, and reached there in 14 days from King George's Sound.

"At this port they discharged both the captain and the mate, and two sailors were ill nearly the whole voyage and the owners had to do sailors' duty. They stayed in Adelaide about a month, and took in general cargo for Portland Bay, and made the passage in three days which was regarded as very quick time. They remained there about 14 days, discharged cargo, and sailed for New Zealand. It took 20 days to reach Nelson where the vessel arrived on the 26 July 1855. When the vessel was quite close to the port the pilot, Captain Cross, came out to bring her in. The vessel had so much way on that her captain could not slacken speed with safety, and sailed right into the old harbour entrance. Captain Cross calling out to keep clear of the rock. A Captain Saunders was in command of the boat and brought her from Australia, The Lady Grey was leased or chartered to a firm and traded for a time in New Zealand. She was run heavily into debt and was ultimately sold to the French Government to carry mails to New Caledonia. The late pilot Low informed the writer that he remembered the Lady Grey well, and that she was a fine built little vessel.

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More recently, I have been able to obtain an extract from the Ship Register of ships built and registered in Prince Edward Island from 1853 to 1855 which both confirms and amends some of the information supplied by the late Mr Lock. This reads:—

Dated 7 August 1854. "Lady Grey", 64 tons; Matthew Walker, Master; built at St Mary's Bay in Prince Edward Island in 1854 by the certificate of William Hicken and John Hicken, the builders, dated 7 August 1854. Specifications: one deck; two masts; her length from the inner part of the main stern to the forepart of the stern aloft is 61 feet 5 tenths; her breadth in midship is 16 feet 3 tenths; her depth in hold at midship is 8 feet 7 tenths; she is a schooner.

Owners: William Brent, 34 shares; Gershorn Curtis, 15 shares; John Lock, 15 shares. All of Charlottetown.

Recorded by Custom House, Prince Edward Island, 20 March 1857, that registration transferred to Wellington, New Zealand.

There appears to be a typographical error in the transcript from the P.E.I. archivist, as the length would be measured from the "stem" to the stern. It is a great pity that no other records of this epic voyage exist, as the above information, while full enough, is only indicative of the nature of the passage, and leaves much to the imagination as to the life on board, especially with the young children, and to the many problems they must have encountered.

The Nelson Examiner in its issue of Wednesday, 25 July 1855, notes the arrival in the Shipping Intelligence column as "22, schooner Lady Grey, 65, Saunders, from Adelaide. Passengers: Mrs Brent and four children, Mrs Curtis and four children". The voyage was sufficiently intriguing to encourage a further comment on the same page: "The schooner Lady Grey, which arrived here on Sunday, is from Prince Edward's Island, in British America, and has brought three families numbering, we believe, 21 souls, to settle in this colony. This is the first direct immigration we are acquainted with from British America to New Zealand, and we hope the expectations of the enterprising immigrants in coming here, will be fully realised. The vessel was purchased from the stocks for the voyage by the parties who were wishing to come here, and having reached her destination, she is now to be sold. The Lady Grey has called at Adelaide and Portland Bay, and this has necessarily lengthened her passage".

The four children of Mrs Brent would have included Rebecca, aged 16; Elizabeth Ann aged 13, and Isaac aged 3. Stephen was then about 20, and may not have been included as a "child", so that the fourth could have been Mary Brent. The baptismal records from P.E.I. show that a "Martha Brent" was born at Charlottetown on 8 October 1843. This name does not re-appear in the family records in New Zealand, but it is quite possible that Martha became Mary by family usage. I have yet to ascertain the precise facts about Mary's birthday and place of birth to confirm this.

The arrival of Rebecca, of course, resulted in her romance with William Lightband. He would have been about 21 when she arrived in Nelson, and just about four years later they were married, an event which gave rise to the New Zealand generations of the Lightband family.