Atrato
Steamship: tons
Captain: Husband
Surgeon Superintendent: James Ellis
Sailed London 10th Feburary 1874 & Plymouth 6th April 1874 - arrived Otago 8th June 1874
                                                                                                                Lyttelton 20th June 1874

Although I am dealing with the pre-steam days, I think it only right that an exception should be made in the case of a vessel called the Atrato which made a passage which caused much comment at the time, and is no doubt familiar to the descendants of the people that came out in her. The Atrato was one of the first steamers to make the voyage to New Zealand. She reached Port Chalmers on June 8th 1874, after having encounter a series of misadventures. Although she was a vessel of only 360 feet overall, she had no less than 762 immigrants on board, and of that number 280 were children. There was much sickness on board and before New Zealand was reached there were 33 deaths, all being children with one exception. Croup was the cause of 17 deaths, and measles were very bad, 180 out of the 280 children being down at one time or another. The Atrato was a slow boat - though in 1874 her 350 h. p. nominal power engines were described as "magnificent" - doing only ten knots, or twelve to thirteen when she had her sails set and the wind was favourable; still the 64 days she took from Plymouth to New Zealand was a good trip for fifty years ago. The most striking feature about the voyage, apart from the large mortality among the children, was the fact some of the passengers were nearly five months aboard ship from the time they embarked at London. After leaving the Thames the steamer met with bad luck and sustained damage in some way that is not related in the reports of her arrival at Port Chalmers - probably she was in collision in the channel. She put into Plymouth for repairs and must have spent several weeks refitting. Most of her passengers were shipped at London, but a few joined at Plymouth, and it was these people that brought the measles on board. Plymouth was in those days an unlucky one for several of the ships that came out to New Zealand - "the port of ill-omen to immigrants" is the way the "Otago Daily Times" described it.
White Wings - Sir Henry Brett

The size of this passenger list (762 passengers) precludes us from publishing it as one complete list.
As there were passengers for Canterbury and Otago we have split it by port of entry.