This 601 ton barque was built in Dundee in 1848. It was employed as a convict transport and left Plymouth, England on November 22, 1852 bound for the Swan River Colony. She carried the eighth of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The voyage took 77 days and the Dudbrook arrived in Fremantle on February 2, 1853 with 103 passengers and 228 convicts [Erickson]. John Innes and Charles W. Keveru were the captain and surgeon respectively.

There were no deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists but Amon Winterbottom (1577) had no details given on the lists and other sources say he died on the voyage. There were 229 convict numbers assigned for the voyage ranging from (1478 to 1706) but [Bateson] says 230 convicts embarked and only 228 arrived.

Of the 103 passengers mentioned above, 99 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 30 pensioner guards, 24 wives, 27 sons and 18 daughters. The other 4 passengers have not been accounted for but were possibly cabin passengers or regular soldiers.

Charles W. Keveru's surgeon's journal for the voyage is preserved in the Public Record Office (PRO) in London. Researchers can view a copy on the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) microfilm reel 3192 which is held in most major libraries and archives offices throughout Australia.

Links

Convicts to Western Australia
http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/con-wa7.html

Convict Records
http://www.convictrecords.com.au/ships/dudbrook

List of convict ship voyages to Western Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_convict_ship_voyages_to_Western_Australia