Rail and Other Transport

Ferry travel was a daily part of McCallum’s routine. He lived in a seaside village located across the harbour from downtown and the 15-minute boat crossing offered relative quickness, convenience, and social opportunity. It was not uncommon for him to go back and forth multiple times a day.

We gain insight into the extent of the ferry system at the time, the schedules, and the routes.

Many journal entries are devoted to train travel, the predominant mode of long-distance land travel at the time. McCallum records:

• Conditions, timetables & durations
  
• Stations and railroads
  
• Fellow passengers (including unsavory types)
  
• Frustrations of catching the wrong train and heading in the wrong direction
  
• Distances in miles from point to point. He logged his cross-country rail journey across America in 1900 starting in New York and ending in Los Angeles.

McCallum notes with passion the advent of the motor car.

• The excitement of going for a simple drive (considered a treat)
  
• Visiting a car factory.
  
• Considering about buying a car for £120.
  
• Fords, Dodges & Austin cars.
  
• His frustration when the car breaks down.
  
• Uncharacteristically approving of one of his daughter’s boyfriends,  just because he owns a motor car.

The journals offer a source of maritime history. In addition to daily ferry travel, McCallum made numerous overseas and local voyages and records his journeys in detail.

We get an inside view of conditions, steamship life, and entertainment. He would frequently opine if the boat was comfortable or if conditions were not to his satisfaction.

Travel by sea in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was arduous – voyages could take many weeks.

Conditions were often poor and the seas and weather could make life miserable and dangerous.

Some of these ships McCallum traveled on were tragically shipwrecked at a later stage e.g. SS Wairarapa, (1894), SS Elingamite (1902).  Others hit rocks but avoided disaster.