There have been some excellent accounts of the doings of this ship
published, including Java - The Melancholy True Story of the EastIndiaman Java by
by Stephen Barrett. In this account of the Java, Barrett writes of the infamous trip to
Adelaide from London and Plymouth between October 1839 and February 1840 during which some
50 of the 500 passengers on board starved to death. These included cabin and intermediate
passengers, as well as assisted emigrants. A Royal Commission into the affair was held,
and her owners, Scott & Co. of London were ordered not to be paid.
There was also a Medical Board inquiry held by the Government of South
Australia into the Java incident.
In another account of this voyage, the number of passengers on the Java
is given thus - "with 464 passengers; approximately 30 additional passengers had died
on the passage".
But regardless of the variation in information about Java, she
did come to Adelaide and she did bring passengers. She arrived here on 6 February 1849
from London and Plymouth carrying between 426 ad 500 passengers. Between 30 and 50
perished from starvation on the voyage which began in London on 12 September 1839 under
command of Captain Alexander Duthie. Her surgeon superintendant was H.C.Martin, and ship's
surgeon Mr J. Smith.
The 3-masted, square-rigged ship 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. The JAVA was 1175 tons, ; 159 ft 2
in x 40 ft 6 in (length x beam) [R. T. Sexton, ,i>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--although I do not know about a picture--of the JAVA is available:
1. Journal, 28 October 1839-6 February 1840, of William/George Richards, in the Mortlock Library,
State Library of South Australia, Adelaide (see), 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). - [Posted to the Emigration-Ships Mailing List by Michael Palmer - 14 August
1998]
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