Don Roulston Buzzard

3.2
John Roulston’s Migration to Colony of New South Wales

On 3rd March 1886 the “Chimborazo”, a three masted iron steam barque of 3847 tons, set sail from London, with the master of the ship being J.H.F.G Nixon. The ship was bound for Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney with 250 passengers plus the crew and provisions sufficient for the voyage, that was estimated to last 75 days. [23]

The ship carried one member of the Smith family, John Roulston, age 36, a bankrupt. It can only be assumed that he travelled out to leave behind the scandal of the bankruptcy, as he would have found it difficult to gain employment in Nuneaton. His family was to follow him to Sydney 18 months later.

The ship sailed via Plymouth 5th March, Naples 12th, Port Said 18th, Suez 19th, Diego Garcia 1st April, Adelaide 17th, Melbourne 20th and arrived in Sydney in the early morning of 23rd April 1886. [24] The journey of only 51 days was due to a commonplace occurrence that prevailed at the time and was to eventually lead to the ships passengers and crew being in sight of their final destinations but unable to land in the ports. The cause of this was an outbreak of smallpox on the “Chimborazo”.

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[23] South Australian Maritime Museum
[24] Australian Town and Country Journal 1st May 1886