Michael's Hell Ship

For more than a century and a half, a grim tale has passed down through Michael Veitch's family: the story of the “Ticonderoga”, a clipper ship that sailed on a calamitous voyage from Liverpool for Victoria in August 1852.Crammed on board in cramped, overcrowded conditions, often without sanitary facilities, fresh water and barely enough food, were 800 poor but hopeful emigrants- mostly Scottish victims of the Clearances and the potato famine. A better life, they believed, awaited them in Australia.

Three months later, a ghost ship struggled into Port Phillip Bay flying the dreaded yellow flag of contagion. On her horrific three-month long nightmare voyage, deadly typhus had erupted, killing a quarter (nearly 200) of Ticonderoga's passengers and leaving many more desperately ill. Sharks, it was said, had followed her passage as the victims were buried at sea. 

The plague-stricken sailing ship struck panic in Melbourne. Forbidden to dock at the gold-boom town, the ship was directed to a lonely beach on the far tip of the Mornington Peninsula, a place now called Ticonderoga Bay. 

The Quarantine Station administrative building

James William Henry Veitch was the ship's assistant surgeon, on his first appointment (and last) at sea. Among the volunteers who helped him tend to the sick and dying was a young woman from the island of Mull, Annie Morrison. What happened between them on that terrible voyage is a testament to human resilience, and to love.

Michael Veitch is their great-great-grandson, and the book “Hell Ship” is his brilliantly researched narrative of one of the biggest stories of its day, now all but forgotten. Broader than his own family's story, it brings to life the hardships and horrors endured by those who came by sea to seek a new life in Australia.

But there’s more...this story was repeatedly told to Michael all his young life by his own father, he has carried it and explored it all these years. 

You can hear the story directly from Michael in a performance at the Horsham Town Hall. Told with pieces of music from the era performed by Michael’s son, there will be the web of four generations of Veitch on stage. This is truly a family story.

Michael captures the human aspects in what is essentially a dark story. Even in a dying ship’s hull there is always some small thing that a wry sense of humour can find to lift us out of the putrid desolation that marks our history.

Michael Veitch’s story of the Ticonderoga delves into our Australian emigrant history, explores the themes of unimaginable courage, of family, and shines the light on a monumental, but almost forgotten, human story. This one, his own.

Upon the arrival of the “Ticonderoga” on the 22nd December 1852, a quarantine station was hastily erected at this site.  Sadly, a cemetery was also immediately required as of the 170 people that died due to Typhus Fever that engulfed the ship, 70 people were to perish upon their arrival to Port Phillip.

Heaton’s Monument marks the location of the original cemetery established at the quarantine station on Point Nepean. The cemetery was relocated inland around 1854, but the neo-Egyptian style sandstone memorial to the Ticonderoga Tragedy and to all those who endured the lengthy passage in migrant transport ships to Australia remains. 

George Heaton was the Supervisor responsible for building much of the Quarantine Station. It is believed that he built the monument at great expense to himself, in memory of the migrants who died.

DATE: 8th September 2018

TIME: 8pm

VENUE: Horsham Town Hall Theatre

DURATION: 70 minutes (no interval)

PRICE: $40 – Adult, $35 – Concession, $30 - 2018 Member, $25 - 2018 Member Concession.

Contact the Box Office on (03) 5382 9555.