Welcome to Wellington's five star hotel

The Bolton Hotel - located on Bolton Street - is named after one of the historical “first ships” that brought European settlers to Wellington.

A vessel weighing 540 tonnes, the Bolton left London on 19 November 1839. The crew included Captain John Percival Robinson and Surgeon Superintendent Dr Richard Godfrey Lowe, and of the 232 passengers there were approximately 66 married couples, 23 single men, 13 single women and 64 children.

After a 154-day journey, the Bolton arrived on 21 April 1840 at Thorndon Beach, Port Nicholson, in an area that became the focus of the planned settlement of Wellington.

Emigration

It is intriguing to imagine what the experience of emigration to a new land might have meant for these immigrants. The courage and determination required to undertake a hazardous journey of 12,000 miles, when few people at this time moved far from their birthplace, must have been immense.

The New Zealand Company

The Bolton was owned by The New Zealand Company, a land-speculation venture. Between September and December 1839, the Company sent a total of eight “first ships” to Wellington: the Cuba, the Aurora, the Oriental, the Duke of Roxburgh, the Bengal Merchant, the Adelaide, the Glenbervie and the Bolton.

Long before it actually owned any land in New Zealand, the Company was selling New Zealand land orders on the London market for just over 100 pounds each. Each order entitled the owner to 100 acres of farmland and a town section of one acre in the proposed new settlement.

It is hard to imagine now that prospective settlers were willing to purchase land on the other side of the world, from a company that did not yet own the land, and at a price of more than four times the price of land in Canada and New South Wales. Apparently, the expectation of those who bought the land orders was that the town sections would rapidly appreciate in value once the new settlement of Wellington was established.

The Voyage

Emigrant ships were notoriously unpleasant. However, the New Zealand Company took health seriously, and all applicants were required to be of “sound mind and body”. Passengers had to have had smallpox or been vaccinated against it. No mattresses or bedding could be shipped unless a Company official had first approved it.

The weekly diet for steerage passengers included three pounds of meat, a half-pound of raisins and a quarter-pint of pickled cabbage. Passengers were required to air their beds daily and regularly wash the decks down. In addition, the Surgeon Superintendent was responsible for a weekly inspection of every passenger, to ensure personal hygiene.

The Company also put in place strict rules that set the tone for daily life on board: alcohol for non-medical purposes was illegal, and gambling was prohibited. Single women slept aft, and single men slept forward.

Wellington

Wellington in the early 1840s consisted of several small huts along the beach between the Maori pas at Te Aro and Pipitea. The bush came down close to the back of the town and remained in the gullies near the shore, amidst hillsides covered in manuka scrub.

Many of the Bolton’s passengers erected very simple shanties known as “Bolton Row” - this later became Bolton Street.

Stories

The research has brought to light a number of interesting stories:

The Harris Rose

The Company ships were overloaded with baggage, much of which was completely useless upon disembarking. Many types of foliage were brought along to beautify the new shores, but with a water shortage on the voyage, little of this greenery survived.

One particular item did survive. Passenger Sophia Harris brought with her a single rose, which she kept alive in a potato. The high water content of the potato ensured the rose’s survival, and it seems to have developed into its own unique species. Many descendants of Sophia and Abraham Harris still grow roses derived from the original cutting.

Source: "Guardian of the Valley" by Miles Erwin

A Storm off the Bay of Biscay

On the Bolton’s second voyage, approximately three days out from London the ship experienced a powerful storm in the Bay of Biscay off France in which the captain’s wife was washed out of her cabin three times, and all aboard thought she had died. The passengers were stuck under the decks for three days as the ship tossed about and baggage crashed up and down around the hull.

According to the journal of a young passenger, Sarah Sharp, “There was crying and screaming and praying.” When the storm passed Sarah declared, “it was like a tree with all the top gone; the big masts were broken in two and the sails gone; nearly all the top deck was gone.” The seas “broke all the bulwark on one side of the ship, and timber, longboat and the pigs, and one of the cook’s galley all went overboard.”

The voyage may have ended just days after it began, were it not for the arrival of a French ship that remained with the Bolton for the three days and provided the repairs necessary to enable it to continue on its voyage to New Zealand.

Source: "Guardian of the Valley" by Miles Erwin

Acknowledgements & Further Reading

Guardian of the Valley by Miles Erwin
Once Upon a Village by David Miller
Wellington Prospect edited by N L McLeod & B H Farland
Unquiet Earth by Margaret H Alington
Wellington Harbour by David Johnson