Scope and Contents In 1854, George Batty wrote this journal as a long anecdotal letter to his friends, describing his sea voyage from Liverpool to Montreal on the ships "Cleopatra" and "New Era." Battyʼs vivid daily account spans more than two weeks in August and September, with accompanying observations about city living in Montreal added in December at the end of the diary. Batty describes conditions of the ship and the weather, his fellow passengers, various events aboard the ship (such as a fire, drunken...