STORMS AND SICKNESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 18

STORMS AND SICKNESS

DIFFICULT VOYAGE OF 50 YEARS AGO REUNION OF PASSENGERS After braving gales and violent storms, and with eight of her 850 passengers dead from scarlet fever, the full-rigged ship, British Empire, arrived in the port of Auckland on February 4, 1880. That voyage of 50 years ago is to be commemorated on Thursday next by survivors, who will meet at a reunion at 2 p.m., followed by a drive around the City, dinner and an entertainment in the evening. The organiser of the reunion, Mr. Fred Souster, himself one of the youngest of the passengers, has received replies from more than 30 fellow emigrants and expects that about (50 will attend the function. Their average age will probably exceed 80 years. He has also received letters from passengers who came out on a previous voyage of the same ship five years earlier. The British Empire, under Captain James Mather, left Falmouth on November 7, 1879, and made a splendid run of 68 days to Tasmania, where strong gales and heavy weather were encountered. The Three Kings was made more than a week before the ship reached Auckland, being delayed by head winds and calms. When only 13 days out measles made their appearance on board and lasted until the new year, when 36 people had been attacked, but had all recovered Cases of scarlet fever followed and, out of the 18 attacked, eight died. The morning before the ship made Auckland, a five-year-old child was stricken down, and the British Empire accordihi y WaS Sent to uaran tine at Motu-