Between 1788 and 1868 something like 162,000 convicts were put on transport ships and banished to the colonies to serve out their sentences. Such were conditions onboard some of these ships and the hazards and vast distances travelled, perhaps as many as one in one hundred perished without ever setting foot on Australian soil. WhenContinue reading “The Loss of the Convict Ship Neva – 1835”
Tag Archives: Castaway
HMS Torch and the rescue of the Ningpo castaways
While Lieutenant William Chimmo was preparing HMS Torch to return to survey work in the South Seas, he was unexpectedly tasked with an urgent mission. Word had just reached Sydney that nearly 20 people had been marooned for two months on a remote island far out in the Coral Sea. By chance, his paddle steamerContinue reading “HMS Torch and the rescue of the Ningpo castaways”
The Orete’s Robinson Crusoe-like Castaway
In January 1918, Donald Mackenzie found himself marooned on a tiny uninhabited island after his schooner sank during one of the most powerful cyclones to hit Central Queensland. The tough 56-year-old Scott was a seaman on the Orete which had sailed from Maryborough bound for Mackay with a cargo of sawn timber. They had noContinue reading “The Orete’s Robinson Crusoe-like Castaway”
Tales from the Quarterdeck 