Re: Deportation of Sheep Stealers to Australia

Dave Postles (pot@leicester.ac.uk)
Mon, 13 Nov 1995 08:09:24 +0000

One of my Irish ancestors William Quinlan developed a taste for lamb chops
at the height of the famine in 1849. He spent four yeras in Mountjoy
before being sent to Fremantle with a bunch of others on the Phoebe Dunbar
in 1853.

I described the voyage and that of another shipload of Irish prisoners in
an anthology published a few years ago.

Most on board were not sheep stealers although forty one percent of
prisoners on board the Phoebe Dunbar were convicted of crimes with an
agricultural connection. They had a bad trip which resulted in the
highest mortality figures for all convict ships which came to Western
Australia.

The anthology is Reece, R. (Bob). (1993). Irish convict lives.
Darlinghurst: Crossing Press. My chapter is "The voyages of the Robert
Small and Phoebe Dunbar to Fremantle in 1853." pp.230-255.

I have for a long time looked for a picture of the Phoebe Dunbar and the
Robert Small. If anyone knows of one please let me know.

Regards,
Paul R. Weaver.
pweaver@echidna.cowan.edu.au

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