Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pleted, without the impulse derived from her perseverance and de-
termination'. 8
In 1876 Annie Brassey was in her thirties, a mother of four chil-
dren and a woman of that English memsahib breed who, whether at
home or abroad, was accustomed to having all her whims carried in-
to effect with the aid of a disciplined contingent of servants. From
the account of the voyage which she wrote it is clear that her en-
thusiasm for it was without reserve. If the thought ever occurred to
her that running a household at sea and in foreign ports was differ-
ent from presiding over her establishments in Park Lane and Chapel-
wood Manor, Sussex, she dismissed it instantly. The project, once re-
solved upon, would be accomplished. Thus, we see her, in her long
skirt and wide-brimmed sun hat, buying food in native markets for
dinner parties of up to forty guests aboard the Sunbeam ; coping with
frequent bouts of seasickness and even one case of smallpox; learn-
ing Spanish; giving daily lessons to the children; caring for the ship-
wrecked crew of a merchant vessel; and never failing to spend an
hour a day at her desk writing up her journal.
That journal is quite unlike any other first-hand circumnavig-
ation account. It is essentially a tourist's chronicle, very short on
nautical detail but bubbling over with enthusiastic observation of
strange sights and sounds. Annie and her family visited twenty coun-
tries at a time when holiday travel seldom took wealthy Britons
beyond the Continent. Annie's comments on unfamiliar peoples and
customs fascinated her countrymen when they were first published
but their interest to us is in what they reveal about Victorian at-
titudes towards other cultures at a time when Britannia ruled the
waves.
When Sunbeam left Cowes on 6 July 1876 she carried a com-
plement of 43 persons, two dogs, three birds and a kitten. As well
as the Brassey family and four friends there were a doctor, a nurse,
a lady's maid, four stewards, a stewardess, three cooks and a crew
 
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