I went looking for a concealed memory for Ghuznee Street, to tie Bowen Galleries to a vanished story of Place, reactivating a little-known history. And through a boarding house I learned was established on the street around 1858, situated nearly opposite St Peter’s Church corner, I came to ponder the sea.
In the stories of sailors, whalers and early New Zealand settlers the sea is the master narrative, but rarely mentioned in the central text as Subject.
The boarding house on Ghuznee Street hosted a variety of guests including many remittance men. It was set up by Sally Dougherty (1818 – 1898) who used the boarding house as a platform to campaign against alcohol, having been appalled by its affects on the whalers she had lived in the company of in Marlborough Sounds.
Sally’s great granddaughter Celia Manson researched and recorded Sally’s life, and the social and political events intersecting with it. The account is told across two books in epic and admirable detail. Although, after reading the books, it was the poetic resonances and singular poignant events that most captivated my imagination – five in particular. First: Sally and her family made a journey from Wairau to Wellington in a rowing boat, which was protracted and arduous and resulted in a miscarriage. Second: Sally was the only European woman on a Cutter’s Bay whaling station, with a husband who was often absent at sea. During this time she gave birth to twins, one of whom died just after birth and the other was drowned about a year later. Third: In all her journeys from the time she left her homeland, Canada, Sally carried cuttings of her favourite plants, which she established at each of her homes. These included, fuchsias, geraniums, strawberries, roses and lavender. Fourth: Sally’s hair was deep auburn and lustrous and remained so all her life (which my memory may have embellished, but nevertheless stuck with me in this form). Fifth: I imagined the sea thick with whale blood. This image was associated in my mind with the red of Sally’s hair. It was also associated psychologically with a fundamental displacement. The image was not literally mentioned in the stories of Sally’s life, nevertheless it was inescapable as whale deaths underpinned her path to the boarding house.
I came to conclude the Sea in Sally’s life was a lyrical and sublime vortex.It was hope, sorrow, disarticulation, despondency, optimism, loss, fear, isolation, resilience and patience rolled into one.
Sally, known earlier in her life as Sarah McAuley, was born in Londonderry, Ireland. She sailed to Canada with her family at the age of seven and grew up in a log cabin in the New Brunswick forests, near the port of St John. In 1837 she married Captain Daniel Dougherty, whom she immediately set sail with to the South Pacific aboard the whaling ship James Stewart. On that trip Sally spent time in Australia and then the Bay of Islands, where she gave birth to her first child. In 1838 she made her own way back to Canada where she gave birth to her second of seven children. Daniel returned to Canada in 1839. Then in 1841 the family sailed as passengers, first aboard the sailing ship Drusilla for London, England; and from there, in 1842, they sailed on the London for Wellington, New Zealand. Shortly after their arrival they moved to Cutters Bay, Port Underwood, Marlborough, where Daniel had established a whaling station. They moved briefly to the Wairau River in 1848, then at the start of 1849 the Doughertys went to live in Wellington, where Daniel had been appointed pilot. There they made a home at Tarakena Bay, between Lyall Bay and the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Daniel died in 1857 at which time Sally made the move to the boarding house on Ghuznee Street in order to support herself and her family. In 1869 Sally moved across town to Thorndon, continuing to take in boarders, and remained there until her death.
References:
Manson, C; The Story of a New Zealand Family: the Beginnings; Cape Catley Ltd, Picton 1974
Manson, C; Widow of Thorndon Quay: Part II of The Story of a New Zealand Family; Pigeon Press, Wellington 1981
Manson, H; Dougherty, Sarah 1817/1818? – 1898; Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/
