In January 1889, the steamship SS Dresden left Southampton carrying 250 of emigrants bound for Argentina. Among them were families from Hampshire, whose stories are now slowly being reconstructed through newspapers, passenger lists, and private letters.
Recent research has brought to light a remarkable letter published in 1889, written by C. & C. Ware, former residents of Southampton, addressed to John Clarke of Woodmill Laundry, Portswood. Writing from Temperley, Buenos Aires Province, they describe starting a laundry business shortly after arrival, their first customers, the difficulty of roads and transport, and the networks of local support that helped them settle.
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| photo credit: Colin Lee | Southampton Heritage Photo |
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
WHAT HAMPSHIRE IMMIGRANTS THINK OF IT
The Hampshire Independent, July 27th 1889 (*)
We have been favoured with letters received from former residents of Southampton by friends in the “old country,” from which we call some interesting particulars as to the experiences of some who have started a new career in the Argentine Republic.
One of the letters, from “C. and C. Ware,” addressed to Mr. John Clarke, Woodmill Laundry, Portswood, and dated from Temperley, F.C.S., Buenos Ayres, says:
“We started our laundry this week, and got through satisfactorily, for all we had to manage without the copper, for a native built it, and didn’t he take his time about it! He commenced Monday morning and finished on Wednesday afternoon, but he made a good job of it.
All the young people round are so interested in it; they have never seen such a thing before, nor a lot of the grown people either.
We are getting nicely settled now. We had a start last week. Mr. B——— sent his coachman round with C——— with his trap to pick up the linen, and again yesterday to deliver it, and the people were so pleased with it; all of them have never seen such ironing as mine.
Mr. B——— bought a light cart for us on Friday, and he has a horse and a set of harnesses for us of his own. You cannot do much out here without a horse and cart, for the roads are awful. Directly there is any rain they are all mud. You put your foot down in a place where you think it is nice, and in you go up to your knees in a crack. The poor horses and oxen often get stuck in the bad places. Some roads cannot be used in wet weather.
All the ladies round are very much interested in us; it is a good thing they found some in the Dresden that would try to get on, for they are almost TIRED OF TRYING TO HELP THE IRISH, for so many were fit for nothing but to drink and smoke and beg for money. I don’t think any of us would have been in the Emigrant’s House so long if it had not been for them, for directly a lady or gentleman showed themselves we got very nearly knocked down if we were near enough to speak to anyone.
I am glad to say it is all over and the place begins to feel more homely, especially now I am doing the work in my own way. We are all ever so much better since we came to Temperley.
The bread is not staying enough; besides, it is eight cents for a small loaf, and they bake them so. I wish very often that I had brought a sitting or two of eggs with me. You can set the hens all the year round here. A lady that I work for came to see me last Sunday, and she advised me to KEEP POULTRY, for the people have such trouble to get eggs. They were 40 cents the half-dozen a little while ago, and I expect they are more now that the winter is on.
I think it a very good start indeed, and we are very pleased with it ourselves. It does not cost us anything for firing, and it will not for the horse’s food, as they turn them out when not working. There is such abundance of grass, and we have a nice field of clover to put our horse in.”
The writer was found in the SS Dresden passenger list as: Charles and Charlotte (C & C Ware) as fathers and Annie, Charles and Alfred as their kids.
This letter is especially important because it:
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Confirms the presence of Southampton emigrants from the Dresden in early Temperley
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Shows how skilled trades allowed families to rebuild quickly
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Describes daily life, food prices, roads, poultry keeping, and relations among immigrants
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Offers a rare, unfiltered voice of emigrants only weeks after leaving England
At the same time that the story of the SS Dresden has long been told as one of failure — collapse, broken promises, hunger, and displacement — individual family trajectories invite us to rethink what this episode actually meant, both then and afterwards.
A particularly revealing case is that of Charles and Charlotte Ware, who travelled from Southampton aboard the Dresden with their children. Far from being migrants without skills or support networks, Charles already appeared in the 1881 British census as a laundryman in South Stoneham, Hampshire. Charlotte, née Clarke, came from a family closely connected to the laundry trade in the Portswood area. This combination of transferable skills and family networks helps explain not only the letter written from Temperley, Buenos Aires, describing the opening of their own laundry business, but also a longer and more complex migratory trajectory.
After their time in Argentina, the Ware family returned to England and resumed their trade in the Southampton area, as confirmed by later census records and numerous newspaper advertisements linked to Woodmill Laundry. Even more suggestive is the appearance of their son Martin Alfred Ware, recorded as having been born in Canada — strongly indicating that the child listed as “Alfred” on the Dresden passenger list is the same individual, and that the family had already experimented with migration to North America either before or after their Argentine experience.
This case highlights a crucial point: prosperity did not always take the form of immediate success within an agricultural colony. Instead, it often emerged through mobility, adaptability, and the ability to transfer skills across borders. For families like the Wares, the Dresden was not the end of the story, but one chapter within a much broader transnational life history.
Revisiting the Dresden through these personal narratives allows us to move beyond a monolithic interpretation of failure. It reveals lives shaped by repeated attempts, returns, and reinvention — trajectories in which even difficult experiences became part of longer processes of survival, learning, and, ultimately, continuity.
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Newspaper reports from Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, and Argentina also show how closely this migration was followed abroad, especially after the failure of the Napostá colony, where many Dresden passengers were initially sent. While some returned to Europe, others — like the Wares — re-emigrated internally, finding work and stability near Buenos Aires.
We are currently cross-referencing:
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SS Dresden passenger lists
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Southampton and Hampshire census records
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British Newspaper Archive reports
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FamilySearch and Ancestry records
If you have family letters, photographs, shipping, census, or parish records and/or stories passed down about relatives who went to Argentina — especially from Southampton / Hampshire between 1888–1895 — we would love to hear from you.
This is an open, ongoing research project, and the Southampton connection is proving to be a vital piece of a much larger Atlantic story.
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