Australian school group visits the world’s only surviving Australian-bound convict ship - in New Zealand! (+ Pictorial)

The historical significance in 2022 of boarding a ship that transported convicts to Australia was not lost on 19 Year 10 Australian students and 4 teachers from The Geelong College. To the group’s further amazement, the ship that first set sail over 169 years ago can be found not in Australia or the United Kingdom, but in the Edwin Fox Maritime Museum in Picton, Marlborough. 

In touring the museum, the students learned about the diseases transmitted on a long journey that included scarlet fever and tuberculosis. They read about the crimes of the convicts and, in some cases, the particularly harsh sentences.   

Once onboard the ship (in a dry dock for preservation), the students could handle the shackles of convicts and look inside a replica cell. The Cabin Class elite furnished their own small cabins. Smaller, cramped conditions indicated  a more uncomfortable journey for many convicts and settlers. Below decks, in the hull of the ship, students stood where the cargo was once stored well below the waterline. All up, the students could see that this ship’s survival is a remarkable story.  

Edventure Travel would be pleased to arrange your school’s or private group’s trip to the Edwin Fox for a personalised tour with one of the educators at the Museum. We can incorporate the Edwin Fox Maritime Museum into any tour to New Zealand. Please contact us for further details.  

The Edwin Fox merchant ship was built in 1853 by the British in Kolkata India for the Anglo-Indian trade. The 50-meter-long wooden sailing ship is said to be one of the last East Indiamen designs, harking back to the heyday of British India. 

 For over 110 years, before the age of steamships became viable, the ship with three masts and solid hull sailed the globe transporting substantial ‘cargo’ including convicts, Empire and colonial troops, immigrants, and all kinds of goods, including spices, salt, beer, lamb and coal. The ship called into the ports of Cuba, Vietnam, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, France, Sri Lanka, America, Hong Kong, China, Mauritius and Thailand, trading its wares. It transported immigrants to Australia in its mid-years of operation and spent the final years acting as a refrigeration ship for the lamb industry  and later a coal hulk, storing and transporting goods to larger ships departing New Zealand.  

 The Edwin Fox, having been overtaken by technology and age, was abandoned at its wharf.  During the early 1960’s the ship was purchased for one shilling (ten cents!) and moved to a remote beach in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand until restoration could begin.  It unfortunately sat there for 20 years and was exposed to the elements and daily tides eating away at its hull. Due to its historical significance, another push to save the ship started in the early 1980’s, its resurrection and preservation began. After an almighty refloating effort, led by volunteers, it was moved to Picton harbour in 1999, where carpenters, divers, renovators, and historical societies brought the ship back to life. Maritime historians pieced together all journeys from documents scattered around the globe. 

The Edwin Fox holds many ‘firsts’, ’lasts’ and ‘only’ records and is of considerable historical significance to Australia and New Zealand. The Edwin Fox boasts of being: 

• The only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia (1858) 
• The last wooden Crimea War troop carrier (1855) 
• The oldest surviving merchant ship in the world 
• The last of this ship design left in the world 
• Capable of completing her first voyage to Australia (Melbourne) in 1856 
• The first immigration transport on the Edwin Fox to New Zealand (Lyttleton) was in 1873 
• A work-horse in Picton in 1897, working as a meat and coal barge for its remaining days until abandoned in the 1960’s 
• Purchased for one shilling in 1965 by a historical society 
• Towed to Picton, New Zealand, before preservation work began in 1985 
• Recipient of the ‘World Ship Trust Award’ in 2013 for preservation 
• Filmed for the BBC series ‘Coast’ in 2015 
• The recipient of the first Australian secondary school group in September 2022, arranged by Edventure Travel.

Today, exploring the ship’s decks and hull reveals its early links to the British Empire, the colonies of Australia and New Zealand, and the work-horse it became in the later years as a cargo barge. The wooden decks reveal the convict’s accommodation and the rules and regulations the convicts had to obey. On the upper deck, visitors can see Cabin Class (first class) for the wealthy travellers, and be astounded by the tiny sleeping quarters for immigrants (for example, up to 6 people would share one bunk berth). Diary entries re-tell personal stories of passengers and the hardships they endured sailing on the Edwin Fox where the journeys were dark, damp, and disease-ridden.  

Descending into the largely intact hull reveals the 170-year-old craftsmanship that went into shipbuilding, with elbow joints, rivets, clamps, coak dowl and intricate frame joints all visible. Walking to the stern of the ship’s hull, a visitor can smell the damp, the spices, and the coal dust. The visitor can imagine the croaks and groans of a wooden ship on its voyages at sea. For the convicts who spent time below deck, this hull was their prison.  

The Edwin Fox transported convicts from England to Fremantle in Australia in 1858. Before the 86-day journey, the ship was fitted with cells to accommodate the all-male prisoner ‘cargo’. The British Government chartered the ship to transport 280 ‘superior type’ convicts and 82 passengers to Fremantle. The convicts were deemed a low-security risk. After nearly 3 months at sea, the ship docked in Fremantle in November 1858. The convicts were bound for the free settler colony at Swan River, now Perth, Western Australia.  

A vivid picture of the convict’s journey is documented well in the ship’s log and historical records. Important points include: 

• No prisoners or crew died on the journey to Australia, 3 babies were born to the guards family’s 
• Only one convict was flogged on the journey 
• The oldest prisoner was 59 years old, William Beresford (born in 1799) 
• One clause in the crew’s agreement required that they “inflict corporal punishment on the convicts when required to do by the Master or Surgeon” 

Henry Jobson was the only convict flogged on the journey to Fremantle. He was a former soldier who had received a 14-year sentence for mutiny. An officer writing in his diary recorded that Jobson was flogged for ‘disobedience’.   

Another convict, Peter Duff, was put in leg irons on the first day of the journey to Australia. He complained to the surgeon about the quality of the soup and the insufficiency of the rations “in an insolent and improper manner”. 

One of the most unlikely convicts was Reverend W.D. Beresford (born in 1799) who presented a forged 100-pound bill. Found guilty, he was sentenced to be transported to Australia for the term of his natural life.  

William Messenger was sentenced for “sacrilege”. His crime was to be caught urinating over a gravestone. His sentence length was 14 years. He was 19 years old when he drowned in a river outside the Swan River Colony. 

 Hans Jensen was a 40-year-old convict sentenced to transportation and 10 years prison for stealing 3 empty sacks. 

Costley, Nigel, et al, Teak and Tide: The Ebbs and Eddies of the Edwin Fox, Nikau Press 2014 

Edwin Fox Society, The Edwin Fox: Hard-Won Heritage, Picton, 2004 

The Edwin Fox Maritime Museum 

Convicts to Australia: A Guide to Researching your Convict Ancestors: http://www.perthdps.com/convicts/con-wa25.html  

Crimean War Veterans in Western Australia: https://crimeanwar-veteranswa.com/ships/edwin-fox/ 

Solignac, Morgana, ‘Blenheim boy immerses Aussie students in Marlborough’s history’, Marlborough Express, 18 September, 2022: