Letter from Harriet King to Mrs Eliza Fraser aboard the WACOUSTA

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Letter from Harriet King to Mrs Eliza Fraser aboard the WACOUSTA

Author Harriet King

Date10 May 1853

Object number00003878

NameLetter

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 270 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionManuscript letter written by Harriet King after a voyage from Scotland to Melbourne on board the WACOUSTA, 10 May 1853. Sent to Mrs Eliza Fraser and friends, at Fane Valley, County. Louth, Ireland. Miss Harriet Louise King (40) left Glasgow on 14 January 1853 on board the WACOUSTA in company with her brother Dr. William King (40), his wife (36) and children George (7), John Edward (10), Ann (2) and Harriet (12). Dr King was the ship's surgeon and his wife was the matron. HistoryThe letter is a detailed account of the voyage with Harriet King's family from Gourock Bay, Clydeside, which they had left on 14 January, 1853. Includes the witnessing of the wreck of another vessel, a near mutiny, a court martial on board ship and a descriptive account of other passengers and crew. There is a footnote that her brother William has "taken a nice little cottage at a place called Emerald Hill [South Melbourne]", thus enabling them to leave the ship. The WACOUSTA was under the command of Captain Samuel Risk and sailed with 229 passengers from Glasgow on 14 January 1853. The three masted wooden ship was 734 tons, built at New Brunswick in 1851 and owned by McLean of Glasgow.