Lady Denison (ship)
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The Lady Denison was a ship that went missing between Port Adelaide and Hobart, Tasmania in 1850. At the time there were strong allegations that convicts being carried on board murdered the other passengers and crew and headed for San Francisco, although all contemporary evidence proves conclusively that ship sank off the far north-western tip of Tasmania.
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[edit] The Lady Denison
The Lady Denison was a barque of 158 tons, built at Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1847 and was owned in Hobart by Nathan, Moses & Company. The ship had been built by convict labour as a speculation by the Colonial Government, and had traded extensively around south-eastern Australia and the Pacific before being placed in a regular run between Port Adelaide and Hobart.
[edit] Freighting Convicts
Although South Australia prided itself as a colony not founded by convict transportation, locally convicted felons were sent to Van Diemens Land secured below decks on commercial sailing vessels. The Lady Denison was engaged in this trade when she sailed from Port Adelaide for Hobart on 17 April 1850 under Captain Hammond with a crew of 12, 16 paying passengers, 11 convicts, and three prison guards. She failed to arrive and dark rumours of her fate spread rapidly. Several months later a large quantity of wreckage positively identified as coming from the vessel was found on the Tasmanian coast north of Cape Grim. The anti-transportation press asserted that the convicts had thrown the articles overboard to hide their crime.
[edit] Analysis
The alleged mutiny and massacre of the Lady Denison was part of the Australasian Anti-Transportation League 's campaign against the transportation of convicts to Van Diemens Land, which was largely carried out by means of public rallies and press reports in papers owned by its supporters, all aiming at vilifying the convict population. Similar baseless allegations were made four years later after the ship Madagascar went missing between Melbourne and London.
[edit] Reference
Broxam, Graeme, (1993) Shipwrecks of Tasmania's Wild West Coast, Navarine Publishing, Canberra, ISBN 0646163817 Roebuck Society publication ; no. 44.
