2025/07/01 by Paul R. Struthers · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Island Studies and Pacific Affairs
paper · doi:10.1080/00223344.2025.2495579
openalex publication_date 2025/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13
The following document is a transcript of a sea diary, handwritten in ink on a quarto size leather bound notebook, 86 pages, kept by Captain Martin Huggett, commander of the Melanesian Mission ship, Southern Cross IV, during voyages from Auckland to Norfolk Island, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands in 1899. In the words of David Hilliard, historian of the Melanesian Mission, who read the manuscript prior to publication: ‘This diary preserves the authentic voice of a lay worker who served the Melanesian Mission loyally for 23 years, observed much and was not writing for a wider readership. It provides an unvarnished account of daily life on the ship, weather, interactions with trading vessels and naval ships, and racial attitudes, with occasional comments on individual missionaries and members of the crew’ (pers. comm. 2024).