Ruth Blewett (62) and her two youngest children, Emma (28) and Edward (22), embarked on the Saldanha from Liverpool as unassisted immigrants. Departure date: 'Anglo-Victorian Shipping', Geelong Advertiser, 7 September 1859, p.2.

John Morgan's granddaughter Florence recalled later in life (letter to Joan Wallis), ‘All I heard of my father’s father was that on the journey out from Wales he acted as Schoolmaster on board ship.’ (They left from Liverpool, not Wales.) As time would show, John didn’t seem temperamentally suited to the role. But were there any candidates more likely than John on board the Bloomer who could have acted as schoolmaster? No. More than a third of the emigrants were agricultural labourers from Scotland. The rest were made up of ‘a superior class of mechanics’: carpenters, smiths, bricklayers and a wheelwright, with masons making up the second largest group by profession. A good proportion of the adult passengers could both read and write. (Analysis based on shipping manifest.)