13 August 1859

13th. A cloudy morning with a cool and strong but fair wind. The sea still remaining high but going with us. We do not feel so much of its agitation and what we get in rocking and rolling about is taken the more cheerful as we are making good headway out of it. The clouds dispersed in the forenoon and the day forward was fine. This is fine sailing. I hear we have run at the rate of 12 knots per hour for the last forty eight hours. The evening is dull and it is said there is an eclipse of the moon. Yesterday I should have noticed that the Irish stowaway was called to account for himself and I am told his strange confession was to this effect that he came on board in drink and that he fell asleep and that when he awoke the steam tug had left us so he resolved to make the best of it (that's his own account) yet it appears evident that him and his Irish mates had agreed that one of them should get booked on two mess cards to obtain rations for his supporters.

Booth, Thomas. Papers, 1857 - 1859. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS 2002/56