The diary of Dr Denis Meany, MD
This dapper and impressively bewhiskered gent is Denis Redmond Meany, my great-grandfather. He was born in Clonea, Co. Waterford in 1834, the son of Pierce Meany, a Catholic tenant farmer. Pierce – or at least his many brothers, uncles and cousins who were priests in the Catholic Church – had enough means to give Denis sufficient education for him to eventually study medicine in Manchester.
Upon qualifying as an MD, Denis spent a number of years as a doctor in a workhouse in Essex. He returned to Ireland briefly and then in the spring of 1872, at the age of 38, he decided to seek his fortune in the United States, and so booked passage on the steamer Caspian, bound from Liverpool to Baltimore, Maryland. En route, he began a diary to record his journey.
This is what he wrote almost exactly 137 years ago:
Thursday 2nd May. The ship did a sum of 310 miles within the last 24 hours – the sea is very calm to day – all is fun on board. We keep 200 miles south of Newfoundland on account of the ice – this makes us 10 days from L-pool – by Friday evening we expect to get to Halifax. The Capt. is very cautious about taking his ship where there is any ice – he is, I think, a Scotchman. The Dr on board is an Irishman from the South of Ireland. He is rather sharp with the sick passengers.
Friday 3rd May. A very bright clear day – sun shining – cold – just on the Banks in 40 fathoms of water – lots of fishing craft taking cod fish. Expect to get to Halifax at 6 ½ P.M. Now all her sails are out she makes a quick run.
Sounded. N.W. by North 12 o’clock on the Banks – Going very fast all the 24 hours. Expect to reach at 6 ½ P.M. 75 fathoms sand bank. Got up a dogfight on board – this day very cold.
Friday 6 P.M – Sighted land Novas Scotia. At 6 ½ P.M the Pilot was on board and two shots fired from her two guns. The land about this part is very like the Welsh cliffs – very rocky and a great number of small fir trees growing along the shore. The entrance to the Harbour is not very wide – a light house in the centre of the Bay. We get within a stone’s throw of the land going up to Halifax. The sea is very calm; a great many small slate house cottages to be seen.
The entrance is very picturesque. A little chapel stands near the sea. It looks like a Church of England place of worship. The Bay is made up of three branches. On the right is a large fort of several guns; belong of course to England.
Saturday 3rd – A prisoner from Bantry taken from the Ship – did not pay his passage – had his hearing at the Police Station, Halifax and remanded. Remained 24 hours in this place. The houses are all wood. Some good buildings and shops. Trackways along the streets. The state of the streets most deplorable; mud above the ankles. Things are very dear here – lobsters are the cheapest articles I have seen. A big one is to be had for 4 ½ d.
We start from here for Baltimore at 5 P.M. The sun shines and the sea very calm. Left a great many of our passengers behind for Newfoundland. There has been a great fog all the day – now gone off. At 6 P.M. we had to go to anchor at the entrance of the Harbour and remained there until 4 in the morning, the fog was so great. She made away, but about 8 o’clock the fog again came on and remained all Sunday and up to noon on Monday. The wind all the time against us. We steamed about 13 miles an hour.
Sunday was very quiet – no music or dance. The Germans started Psalm singing in their own language. I said my prayers and prayed at mass and so did the Irish girls.
We had a good dinner this day with a lot of good plum pudding. My lot I gave away.
I get to bed between 8 and 9 every night. I enjoy the passage much. There are about 40 at the same table with my Companion and myself and an other man from Lancashire. We there take our food to out sleeping place and fix a short of table and have our meals together. I get anything I want from the cooks and a lot of pies from the Bakers and Butchers, so we have all those nice things to ourselves and what we can’t use, I give it to our Irish passengers.
Monday – fog – the fog whistle kept blowing all the time. The fog lasted and at night when at anchor, the fog bell rings every 5 minutes to let other vessels know there was danger.
Wednesday 8th May. Reached Northfolk, Virginia at 10 A.M. The ship had to stop 3 or 4 times in consequence of shallow water. Northfolk is on the James River and one of the finest I ever saw, more than ¾ miles across. Hundreds of small boats were fishing for oysters. We passed Fortress Munroe where there are hundreds of large guns placed. It is one of the strongest fortifications in America. On both sides of this fine river, the land is very level and covered with beautiful woods.
Though I missed the 2nd by over a week – I’m going to be serialising the rest of Denis’s diaries over the next while and will try to post them on the same day of the year the original entries were written (we’ll see how successful I’ll be with that).
May 11th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Great idea. It must be my mindset right now, but I can help getting that Lovecraftian feeling.
May 11th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
There is a sad (or perhaps fortunate) lack of unspeakable alien terrors in the diaries. At least none that the Dr. recorded for posterity.
May 11th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
How marvelous that you have this diary; thanks for sharing with us! There’s something so wonderful in visiting the past, day by day…
Looking forward to more.
May 11th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I wonder if I might be a distant relative. My folks were also from Waterford and went to Newfoundland (which I see was mentioned) in the early to mid-19th C.
May 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
@Kalin: Just to warn you, the Dr. was a little irregular with some of his diary entries, so there’ll be some gaps. The next entry is May 30.
@Ken: It’s possible, though I’ve done some research on that side of the family and while we have cousins in the Mid West US (Ohio, Indiana), Newfoundland was never mentioned. Not to say there’s no connection, of course. Do you know what part of Waterford?