The British bark JAMES was built at Pictou in 1848.

Master:
     1849/50-1855/56 - D. Cooper
     1856/57-1862/63 - J. Cooper (1856-1862) [probably the  same individual, and
                       identical to the "A. Cooper" in the Melbourne records below]

Owner:
     1849/50-1852/53 - J. Brown
     1853/54-1862/63 - J. Soot & Co

Port of Registry:
     1849/50-1856/57 - Dundee
     1857/58-1862/63 - [not given]

Port of Survey:
     1849/50-1851/52 - Dundee
     1851/52-1852/53 - Liverpool
     1853/54-1855/56 - Clydeside
     1856/57         - Dundee
     1857/58-1862/63 - [not given]

Destined Voyage:
     1849/50-1851/52 - Quebec
     1851/52-1852/53 - Havana
     1853/54-1855/56 - [not given]
     1856/57         - Mediterranean
     1857/58-1862/63 - [not given]

Source: Lloyd's Register of Shipping, annual volumes for 1849/50-1862/63.

The U.S. ship JAMES PENNELL, 574 tons, was built at Pennellville (a part of Brunswick), Maine, in 1848, by Pennell Bros., and was named after James Pennell, the 3rd of the 5 brothers, who constituted the firm. The firm was founded by Capt. William Pennell, who in 1780 bought a large farm 4 miles from Brunswick village, built a home, and established a shipyard. William sold the shipyard to his brother Jacob, who passed it on to his son, Jacob, Jr., the father of James.

Source: William Arnstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55]), V.3303-3304.

The U.S. ship JAMES R. KEELER, 1291 tons, was built at Thomaston, Maine, in 1855, and registered at New York on 9 July 1856. In 1860, she was advertised as sailing in the Black X Line of packets between New York and London.

Sources: Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., List of American-flag Merchant Vessels that received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36), National Archives Publication 68-10, Special Lists 22 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1968), p. 364; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), p. 390.

The British schooner JANE was built at Plymouth, and launched in November 1839. Originally 76/72 tons, lengthened in 1853 and readmeasured at 111 tons. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1839/40 (supplement)-1867/68 contain the following additional information:

Master:
     1839/40-1844/45 - J. Davies
     1844/45-1847/48 - E. Blake
     1848/49-1851/52 - Power
     1851/52-1853/54 - J. Maine
     1854/55-1867/68 - C. Benson

Owner:  Hill & Son

Registry:  Plymouth

Port of Survey:
     1839/40-1845/46 - Plymouth
     1845/46-1847/48 - Newport, Wales
     1848/49-1859/60 - Plymouth (last surveyed, 1859)

Destined Voyage:
     1839/40-1841/42 - Liverpool
     1842/43-1844/45 - Spain
     1844/45-1847/48 - Mediterranean
     1848/49-1850/51 - Liverpool
     1851/52-1852/53 - Lisbon
     1853/54         - [not given]
     1854/55-1856/57 - Mediterranean
     1857/58-1867/68 - [not given]

Although Lloyd's Register lists the JANE through 1867/68, the entries indicate she was last surveyed in 1859, and it is therefore possible that she was sold, wrecked, or dismantled in the early 1860's.

The British ship JAVA was built at Calcutta by Blackmore & Co, in 1811. 1175 tons; 159 ft 2 in x 40 ft 6 in (length x beam).

The JAVA, Alexander Duthie, master, J. Smith, ship's surgeon, and H. C. Martin, surgeon superintendent, sailed from London on 12 October 1839, and from Plymouth on 29 October, and arrived at Adelaide on 6 February 1840, with 464 passengers; approximately 30 additional passengers had died on the passage. The JAVA departed on 5 March 1840, in ballast, for Batavia [R. T. Sexton, Shipping arrivals and departures, South Australia, 1627-1850; guide for genealogists and maritime historians, Roebuck Society Publication No. 42 (Ridgehaven, SA: Gould Books/Aranda, ACT: Roebuck Society, 1990), pp. 63 (where the number of dead is incorrectly given as 3) and 225]. According to Ian Hawkins Nicholson, Log of logs; a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries, letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand and surrounding oceans, vol. 2, Roebuck Society Publication No. 47 (Yaroomba, Qld: The Author jointly with the Australian Association for Maritime History, 1993), p. 244, quite a bit of information on the JAVA is available:

1. Journal, 28 October 1839-6 February 1840, of William/George Richards, in the Mortlock Library of South Australiana, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, D4718(L).
2. Typescript of a "Log", by James Trangmar, from Gravesend, 12 October 1839, to Holdfast Bay, February 1840 - including Crossing the Line (the Equator), near mutiny by the crew, and a race with the RAJASTHAN, 5-6 February 1840, to anchorage of Gleneig, South Africa, including return to England - also in the Mortlock Library, State Library of South Australia.
3. Minutes of the medical board inquiry into the JAVA's voyage, in the Public Record Office of South Australia (PO Box 713, North Adelaide 5006, South Australia), 1839/312a 27.
4. An account of the voyage, based on the above sources, as well as a later history of the JAVA as a troopship in the 1840's and as a hulk from c.1865 to 1939, has been privately published by Stephen Barnett, JAVA: Being the Melancholy True Story of the Voyage of the East Indiaman Java with Emigrants to the Colony of South Australia ... (1990 and 1991). The work is available directly from the author at 42 Cooinda Avenue, Redwood Park 5097, South Australia.
5. There is also an account of the voyage in the chapter "The Floating Coffin," in Colin Kerr, A exelent coliney; the practical idealists of 1836-1846 (Adelaide: Rigby, 1978).