At Sea with Bishop John Bede Polding

Book excerpt: The two shipboard journals recorded by Lewis Harding, Bede Poldings fellow passenger in 1835 and 1846, and here published for the first time, present endearing glimpses of Australia were via the Cape of Good Hope. In addition, he sailed several times to ports within his Province to Newcastle, Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Albany and Perth. When in Europe he regularly crisscrossed the Irish Sea and the English Channel. In his old age, in October 1869, he undertook a voyage intending to reach Europe in time for the opening of the Vatican Council at Rome in December. The steamer sailed via Melbourne and Albany into the Indian Ocean, thence into the Red Sea, heading to the Suez Canal, which was due to open in November. However, the Archbishop, sick and exhausted, turned back after reaching Aden, arriving in Sydney on Christmas Eve 1869.