46 - New Zealand - Althea and John Stevenson

Now here's a coincidence as on this day in 1879 the 'Westland' anchors outside Port Chamlers Harbour, New Zealand, at 5pm - and look what arrived in the post today - they were on this very voyage!

Hi, Here’s a little contribution to your paper boats project from NZ. The boats are folded from paper printed with bits of history associated with the ‘Westland’.
Jonathan Moscrop and Sarah Matthews (his wife to be) were passengers on the ‘”Westland’. Jonathan wrote the diary that you have linked to on your blogs.

One boat is folded from a page with a photo of Jonathan and Sarah taken about 1913 with their daughters and daughters’ families. Jonathan’s face (with beard) shows on the side of the boat.





Sarah’s father, John Matthews was also on the ‘Westland’. He brought with him a small notebook, which he had used as a schoolbook when he was a boy. It is dated 24th May 1842.

We have folded two more boats from pages printed with scans of the cover and pages from the schoolbook. The book is held by my wife, Althea, who is descended from Jonathan and Sarah and John. We live in Auckland New Zealand.
Best wishes for you fundraiser Project.
John Stevenson

Now, I don’t usually unfold the paper boats, but these were just to enticing! So I unfolded and took photos before folding back!