Arriving in Australia

Port Adelaide: South Australian 1867

Young John Ebbott family arrived in Australia on the Gloucester which left Plymouth on the 30 April 1852 and arrived in Adelaide on the 12 August 1852, a big journey for a lad who was only 11 years old at the time.   The Gloucester was 13^th ship from England to arrive in the South Australia with government passengers that year[i]. 

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Saturday 14 August 1852 p 2 Article extract

The whole family travelled together

1. John Ebbott was listed as an agricultural labourer aged 43 years
2. Sally, (Sarah) was 36
3. Jno, was 11 years old
4. Philip 8
5. Emma 5
6. William 1 (who was not amongst the passengers to disembark the ship at the end of the journey.)

The trip took 3 and half months in total.

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Saturday 14 August 1852 p 2 Article extract

It was a horrendous journey.   “The Gloucester had 25 deaths during this particular journey. .   This was a particularly high number of deaths, as the average voyage death percentage rate was 1.8 for a journey such as this.  It was in the top eight of vessels out of the seventeen vessels that suffered more than 16 deaths at sea, accounting for five per cent of all ships arriving after 1848”[ii].

Even on arrival the journey was not smooth sailing

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Wednesday 18 August 1852 p 3 Article

 “FATAL ACCIDENT - On Monday afternoon last, as the ship Gloucester was being towed up the harbour, the ship's boar, containing two men, which was being towed by the ship, was capsized, and one man unfortunately drowned.  Boars were immediately sent to the spot, as also a police-boat with drags; but up to a late hour the body had not been found.”

In all this confusion their William their youngest child at the time, he died of gastro enteritis on the 12 August, the day of arrival.  He is said to have been buried on the banks of the Torrens River. 

When the Gloucester finally arrived 284 people disembarked, including 113 children and infants; these were made up of 277 English, 3 Scots, and 4 Irish.

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Saturday 14 August 1852 p 2 Article extract

(Note although the Ebbott family is not listed on the passenger in the newspaper, after consulting the original ship records that is Ebbott family listed and no Elliot family listed, it is likely that the journalist misheard the name and put down Elliot instead of Ebbott.)

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[i] Webpage for the Ship Gloucester on The Shipslist Kindly transcribed and submitted to TheShipsList by Robert Janmaat, Adelaide, from a variety of sources, http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/gloucester1852.shtml accessed 23 August 2012

[ii] Bound for South Australia Births and deaths on government-assisted immigrant ships 1848-1885 Robin Haines, Judith Jeffery, and Greg Slattery ISBN 0 947284 41 9