The Mimosa

The Mimosa was a clipper ship best known for its voyage to Patagonia in Argentina in 1865, carrying the first Welsh emigrants. Their aim was to establish a Welsh colony which would preserve the Welsh language and culture, which they felt were under threat in Wales.

By the time Mimosa made the voyage, it was already past its prime as a clipper, having been built in 1853 at Hall's shipyard in Aberdeen. It had not been designed to carry passengers, and had been converted for the purpose. The cost of fitting provisioning and chartering the ship was £2,500 and the passengers paid £12 per adult or £6 per child for the journey.

Prior to the voyage the emigrants assembled at various points to prepare for the journey, including Aberdare, Birkenhead, Rhosllannerchrugog and Mountain Ash, but these were not always the places of origin of the passengers.

The Mimosa sailed from Liverpool, England on May 28 1865 to Patagonia, with a group of about 153 passengers with Captain George Pepperell and a crew of 18. Thomas Greene, an Irishman from Kildare, had been appointed as ship's surgeon. They landed on July 28 1865 and named their landing site Porth Madryn (Puerto Madryn in Spanish). They were met by Edwyn Cyndrig Roberts and Lewis Jones, two Welshmen who had already arrived in Patagonia in June 1865 to prepare for the arrival of the main body of settlers.

The proposed site for the colony was in the Chubut River valley. On September 15 1865 the first town in the Chubut colony was named Rawson, and the settlers went on to build the settlements at Gaiman and Trelew.

The exact number of emigrants who sailed out to Patagonia on the Mimosa remains uncertain. Although one of the original settlers, Richard Jones (from Tregeiriog, in the Berwyn Mountains of Denbighshire, and hence known throughout his life as Berwyn), maintained a register of births, marriages and deaths for many years, most of these original records were lost in the great flood in the Chubut Valley in 1899.

In 1875 the Argentine government granted the Welsh settlers ownership of the land which encouraged hundreds of others from Wales to join the colony.

The colony became known, in Welsh, as Y Wladfa.

The Advance Party

The 1865 Settlers

Bibliography

• Susan Wilkinson - Mimosa: the life & times of the ship that sailed to Patagonia, Y Lolfa, 2007 (ISBN: 9780862439521)
• Susan Wilkinson - Mimosa's Voyages: Official Logs, Crew List and Masters, Y Lolfa, 2007 (ISBN: 9780862439835)

(Susan Wilkinson is the great-great niece of Thomas Greene, the ship's doctor for the voyage)

References

• 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses for Wales and England
• Berwyn Registers
• Buenos Aires Herald, September 1998

External links

• Glaniad - Images and Stories about the Welsh Settlements in Patagonia