Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History




Convict Ship Enchantress - 1834


The were two different vessels by the name 'Enchantress' engaged as convict transportation ships.


Enchantress

1. The Enchantress, Captain Thomas Canney, arrived in Van Diemen's Land with 199 convicts in July 1833 having departed Portsmouth on 13 April 1833. Surgeon James Osborne kept a medical journal during the voyage to Van Diemen's Land from 8 March to 5 August 1833. [4].


2. Enchantress, Captain David Roxburgh, arrived in Port Jackson from Mauritius on 16 January 1834 with one male prisoner of the Crown....John Knockton was born in County Galway. He was 34 years of age and had been a soldier Officer's servant and groom. He was convicted of Mutiny at Port Louis Mauritius on 20 October 1833.

John Knockton held a ticket of leave for the district of Liverpool which was cancelled in 1850 for being absent from his district. He was granted a conditional pardon in 1852.

Notes and Links

1). It may have been this same John Knockton who was employed as a 'lunatic keeper' at the Parramatta Invalid Establishment in 1853 and who was a witness at the trial of George Watkins. (Empire 8 February 1853)

2). The year 1835 was a disastrous year in shipwrecks, there being 16 colonial vessels wrecked in that year. Four of them occurred in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, three in Bass Straits and three on a reef off Madura Island, Java. The Enchantress was wrecked not far from the site of the wreck of convict ship George III in the D'Entrescasteaux Channel. The Enchantress had been attempting to cross the channel at night. The first part of her to strike the cliffs was her jibboom. She went down in deep water and only three out of a total company of 50 were saved. - Central Queensland Herald 27 October 1932

3). Account of the wreck of the Enchantress - Colonial Times 21 July 1835

References

[1] Convict Indents. Convict Indent. State Archives NSW; Series: NRS 12189 Item: [X636] Microfiche: 708

[2] Sydney Morning Herald 27 November 1850.

[3] Sydney Morning Herald 21 April 1852.

[4] Medical and surgical journal of HM transport ship Enchantress from 8 March to 5 August 1833 by James Osborne, surgeon and superintendent. National Archives