Below deck on the emigrant ship St Vincent.

Repro ID: A2942

Description: An 'Illustrated London News' engraving showing life below deck on the emigrant ship 'St Vincent' (1829). Once used as a convict ship, the 'St Vincent' sailed from Deptford on 8 April 1844 with 165 emigrants to Sydney. She stopped in the West Country and at Cork, Ireland (known as Queenstown while under British rule) to take on additional migrants. Most of these emigrants had received special government grants that subisidised settlement in the colonies. The offer was open to families, single men 'of good character' and a proportion of single women between eighteen and thirty, who had been in domestic or farm service. The Illustrated London News stated 'The future well being and respectability of the colony [Australia] mainly depends on the good conduct of the working classes'.

Creator: 'The Illustrated London News'

Date: 13 April 1844

Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London