Citation
Schoolboy Tourist at Port Arthur 1889: Peter MacFie, Tasman Peninsula Chronicle No 2, 1987, p17, Nubeena
Tasman Peninsula Historical Society
Outline
Fifteen-year old Percy Shearn was holidaying in Hobart when he took a day trip to Port Arthur to ‘see the sights’. This paper provides background to his story and includes transcripts of the two (originally handwritten and illustrated) letters he wrote back to his parents in Launceston about his adventure. The letters were brought to the author’s attention by Elspeth Wishart who noticed them at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston.
Download
Schoolboy Tourist at Port Arthur.pdf
Excerpt
The boat left about 9a.m. It was the T.S.N.6 Flora.
We got to Port Arthur about a ¼ to one p.m. (I had dinner before going on shore). It was rather rough people sick in all directions and sprawling about everywhere some laying flat on the deck with their head towards the side others are rolled up in a kind of ball it was awful she was pitching and tossing dreadfully both going and coming.
I was in the Bow (where you feel all the tossing and pitching and rolling.) Well we got there all safe and sound and on shore I went I saw an old fellow showing some gentlemen about and without asking their permission I attached myself to them (I wanted to see all there was to see and hear all about it) so I went with these gentlemen (they did not say anything so I concluded they did not mind and went about with them hearing the explanations given by the old man and hearing about everything.
End of Excerpt
To read more, download the pdf as above. However, the sketches are not reproduced her and need to be accessed in the Tasan Peninsula Chronicle.
Index
Aunty Smith, 1, 4
blind men, 4
Carnarvon, 1
Cascades Womens’ Prison, 1
cat-o-nine-tails, 4
Church Port Arthur, 3
Cowan, James, 1
flogging, 4
ghost, 3
inns
Carnarvon Hotel, 1
Launceston)., 1
letters, 2, 4
Model Prison, 2
musician, 4
painting and sketching, 3
Port Arthur, 1
Port Arthur Conservation Project
properties
Commandant’s House, 1
Richards, Mary Ann. See Shearn, Mary Ann (Mrs Charles)
sea sickness, 2
Shearn, Charles, 1
Shearn, Pearcy, 1, 3, 4
Shearn, Mary Ann (Mrs Charles), 1
ships
Flora, 1
Mary Ann, 1
sketches, 2
St. Leornards, 1
triangle, 4
End of Index
Copyright Peter Macfie © 2018