First four ships
The first four ships were four sailing ships in 1850 by the Canterbury Association for the transportation of the first English settlers in the Canterbury region in New Zealand were chartered. As such, they play an important role in the settlement history of the Christchurch region.
Travel background
Colonization theorist Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Irish native John Robert Godley were the driving forces behind the colonization efforts of the Canterbury Association , an offshoot of the New Zealand Company . Both wanted to settle a planned English enclave in the Māori- inhabited area of today's Wairarapa , which is located on the North Island of New Zealand . In order to be able to realize the project, the Canterbury Association was founded on March 27, 1848 at 41 Charing Cross in London . A resolution was passed at the inaugural meeting stating that the name of the populated area should be "Canterbury" and the name of its capital city "Christchurch".
Preparations
The Canterbury Association sent Captain Joseph Thomas to New Zealand as chief surveyor and leader of an advance division . With his two assistants Thomas Cass and Charles Torlesse , a nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield , they were supposed to choose the area for the settlement, measure it and prepare it for settlement. On November 2, 1848, they arrived traveling on the Bernicia in New Plymouth . The ship was targeting Wairarapa. When the Bernicia made a stopover in Nelson , Thomas learned of settlers from unexplored plains north and west of the Banks Peninsula . The surveyor's interest was aroused and so he decided to travel on to Wellington . There Thomas wrote to Bishop Selwyn that he intended to go to Port Cooper (now Lyttelton ) to investigate the area. The three surveyors, the newly appointed chief agent for the New Zealand Company, William Fox, and five surveyors arrived on the Fly cutter in Port Cooper in December . A brief but thorough exploration of the plains resulted in the certainty of having found an ideal location for their settlement called Canterbury.
At Thomas' suggestion, then Governor George Gray and Bishop Selwyn decided to build the settlement there and not in Wairarapa. Godley, Thomas and their helpers began to build barracks and other infrastructure for the immigrants in what is now Port Cooper (Lyttelton) and in the newly established Christchurch.
Port Cooper was named after the owners of the Sydney- based whaling and trading company Cooper & Levy . Rumors that Port Cooper and Port Levy bore the names of two convicts deported to Australia seemed inappropriate to the Canterbury Association. Thomas was instructed to rename her "Port Victoria" and "Port Albert" after the Queen and her husband. However, Thomas decided to rename Port Cooper in Lyttelton after Lord Lyttelton , a member of the Canterbury Association. Port Levy kept its name.
travel
Before leaving for New Zealand, a public banquet and ball was held for families wealthy enough to buy land in New Zealand. On September 30th, there was also a service in St Paul's Cathedral for the so-called "pilgrims". Four ships left Plymouth in September : the Randolph , the Cressy , the Sir George Seymour and the Charlotte Jane .
The "colonists" traveled in their cabins in relative luxury. Among them were the men and their families who had enough money to buy land in the new colony. Some of these families are significant in Christchurch to this day. The “emigrants”, among them farm workers, day laborers and traders, traveled in the hold, some also worked on board for their journey. Cabin passengers paid £ 42, cheaper berths were £ 25, and passengers in the hold were £ 15. There were a total of 790 passengers on the four ships. Another 60 worked the passage as a crew on board or deserted from the crew upon arrival. The Charlotte Jane had about 154 passengers, the Randolph 217, the Cressy 155 and the Sir George Seymour 227. Exact numbers are not known because infants were not counted and the passenger list and the ship's doctor's list give different numbers. Both groups of emigrants were devout Anglicans who had been chosen to build a church based on religious values. A chaplain, a doctor and a schoolmaster traveled on each ship. Also in the freight was a printing press, a library with 2,000 books, a church organ and several dismantled prefabricated houses.
The Charlotte-Jane was the first ship to land in Lyttelton Harbor on the morning of December 16, 1850 . The Randolph followed in the afternoon. The Sir George Seymour came on December 17th, the Cressy only on December 27th, because her foremast south of Cape of Good Hope had been lost. Governor George Gray traveled down the coast in the sloop HMS Fly to greet the new arrivals. But he left with his wife before the Cressy arrived . John Robert Godley was also in Lyttelton to meet the settlers.
The names of the first settlers can still be taken from a marble tablet in Cathedral Square in Christchurch.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Local History - The first four ships . Christchurch City Libraries , accessed January 31, 2015 .