It was an arduous five months and one day trip, with the only stopover at Hobart, Tasmania. The vessel left Gravesend on October 10, 1840, and arrived at Wellington on March 17, 1841.
Alec’s sister Helen and her husband Peter Bruce, along with a 4-month-old child Diana, were also aboard, but they stayed in Wellington, buying 46 acres (18.6ha) in the Hutt Valley at what was Taita, but later became Naenae College.
On board also was a young Jane Martin, with a family group of 25, who became Alec’s wife about one year after arriving in New Zealand.
Alec, Jane and one girl child, Sarah, came south with a survey party on February 19, 1846, on an assignment Charles Kettle had organised from London after his return there for a short time to acquire a contract to survey Port Chalmers and the depth of its harbour for shipping that might arrive in the future.
While there the Duthies stayed with Alexander McKay and his wife Janet (nee Allan, of the Allanton family) in their little shanty hotel they named the "Surveyor’s Arms".
With the survey complete, along with the depthing of the harbour and a few other lines cleared, the brig Bee sailed up harbour with surveyors A. Jollie, A. Wylie and A. Wills aboard, looking for men to assist in the survey of the Southern Otago Block, from Clinton to the Clutha River to the sea at Kaka Point.
Jane and Sarah stayed with Janet McKay’s sister, Issabella Anderson, in a wattle and daube cottage at what was later named Andersons Bay
The brig left port heading south with the full survey group aboard, heading for a point about 6km off the coast from the mouth of the Clutha River, but got caught up in a strong wind with driving snow which blew her south to a short distance from Stewart Island.
The storm blew itself down a little and the wind changed so Bee tacked its way back to the drop-off point a few days later.
The lugger Rhadamanthus was the lighter to transfer the food, tools and people from the brig to the shore at Kaka Point beach, a long and arduous job in the cold and wet.
The whole crew lived in a crude hayshed for a few days while the weather cleared, allowing them to head for the southern point of the survey to strike a line to work from for the 11-month project.
They were well paid at 14 shillings and supplies of 10lbs of flour, salt, a quarter of a pound of tea and half of a pound of sugar per week, supplemented with wild fowl and pork hunted at will.
These supplies were either dropped off at the Kaka Point drop-off point or sent up the Taieri River to the southern end of Lake Waihola from where it was packed to the work area in the southern area.
There were times when the weather did not allow these deliveries, so either the crew hunted for meat or they starved until the next delivery. At the end of the survey Jollie, John Anderson and Duthie took the survey parchments and headed for Dunedin, being rowed across the two streams of the mighty Clutha (as it was then) to about where Kaitangata is now. They then legged it to where the Taieri River flows through the coastal hills to the sea and the Maori kaik or village which stood just a little southeast from the old Taieri Ferry bridge, by nightfall.
Staying at the village overnight, and waking next morning saw Jollie sick and in no state to carry on, so Duthie and Anderson headed off.
Duthie and Jollie the next day took a more leisurely pace, reaching the camp by dusk.
The other task of the parchment runners was to arrange for a ship to return to Kaka Point beach to pick up the main survey crew who had delivered all of the tools and gear needed for the survey and the recording of such a task.
Rhadamanthus was at Waikouaiti with another job to finish before going south, so it was about two-three weeks before the pick-up was carried out and all of the crew were back in Port Chalmers ready to be shipped back to Wellington.
Two cutters were loaded with those who wished to go back, Leven and 11 days later Scotia.
As the loading took place the boat settled well down in the water. Leven had little freeboard but launched off with full sail out to sea on a very flat sea, calling at Moeraki, Akaroa, Port Levy and Pidgeon Bay before heading for Cook Strait and Wellington.
Another coaster heading south believes it may have spotted Leven in Cook Strait with little to be seen above the waterline.
A few days later the bottom of a boat of the size and type was seen along with wreckage and bedding picked off the beach at Lyall Bay, South Wellington, but no bodies or anything of value.
On board, besides the passengers was the parchment of the Southern Survey, a large sum of money from the sale of stolen sheep, and the man who carried out the theft.
Scotia made Wellington safe and sound with the leaders of the survey and those not in a hurry to return but very thankful for their safe journey. They had left 11 days behind Leven but Scotia had been loaded with safety in mind as from leaving Wellington she had to head to Melbourne.
Alec Duthie and his wife Jane had worked with Charles Kettle previously while in Wellington and of course also in the Otago area so when asked to stay by Kettle and with guaranteed work, the group jumped at the offer. There was a plus in this for Kettle, as his wife was expecting a child and was great friends with Jane, so they had a trusted face to call on when in need: a win-win situation.
Alec and Edward Martin went on to build Kettle’s house as well as Duthie’s house in Stafford St. They also built two wharves and many other needed facilities in and around the fledgling town of Dunedin.
- To mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of Otago the Otago Daily Times invites readers to send in their tales of ancestors who helped build the province. Email editor@odt.co.nz
