GOLD, CHAOS and DEATH SHIPS

The discovery of gold in the Australian colony of Victoria in 1851 had an enormous impact on the colony. It created a vast amount of wealth, changed the expectations of the people and had a considerable social, economic and poliical impact on the colony. An immediate impact occurred because large numbers of people deserted their place of employment and went in search of gold. This caused major problems for commerce and industry. For example the shearers found digging for gold more exciting than shearing sheep. As a result there was virtually no wool for export. This also had an impact on the woollen mills in England.

Huge numbers of people were arriving in the colony from overseas. By the end of 1852, 88,000 people had left the United Kingdom and arrived in the colonies. More ships sailed to Melbourne than to any other port in the world. Another 63,000 ariived in 1853, followed by 83,000 in 1854. Most of the arrivals were there to make their fortune on the gold fields not to replace the labour needed to keep commerce and industry functioning.

The cry went up for emigrants as replacement labour to keep the colony working. It was the task of the Emigration Commission in England to locate people willing to emigrtate and to secure transport to the colonies. The Commission was successful in finding large number of people willing to relocate to the colonies but finding ships as transport proved difficult. The usual emigrant ships weren't interested as they were maiking more money charging high prices to take paying customers to the gold fields.

However, six big North American ships were identified and their owners agreed to transport the emigrants. These ships had been built to transport large volume of cargo between North America and Liverpool. They were relatively new and were much larger that the normal emigrant ships. Because of their size they were able to take on board over twice as many emigrants as the old square riggers.

The six ships were loaded with almost 5000 passengers, mainly families, many with children. They were seeking a better life and new opportunities in the colonies. The six ships departed from Liverpool, which was a very unhealty place. There were many endemic and emedemic diseases in England at that time and most were present in Liverpool. These diseases thrived where people lived in crowded conditions. The very crowded conditions in the emigrant ships were ideal for the spread of disease.

My book Death Ships follows the long voyage of each of the six ships (Marco Polo, Beejapore, Wanata. Shackamaxon, Bourneuf and Ticonderoga) as they made their way to the colonies.