Survivors and descendants of the ship Constitution / Samuel Cocks

MPG/238

fonds

24 May 1905

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9662956

1 photographic print - gelatin silver, pasted on board - 15 x 20 cm, on board 25 x 30 cm

The emigrant ship Constitution, which arrived on 27 May 1855 from Southampton, England with 375 passengers, docked at North Head in Sydney Harbour for quarantine, in accordance with the 1832 Quarantine Act. On the voyage four people had died from smallpox and ten from other ailments. On arrival, there were twelve cases of smallpox amongst the immigrants, and during the 65-day quarantine which followed, another thirteen people died. During the quarantine period the ship’s crew built a stone monument to commemorate the loss of life.

Fifty years later, on Empire Day 24 May 1905, 22 of the survivors and their families (the eldest of whom was then 88 years old) met at the site for a reunion. At this time tablets were placed on the obelisk memorial by the surviving passengers to commemorate the jubilee of their arrival in Australia on the 27th May 1855 and in memory of those that had passed away.

References:
Library correspondence file
https://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/22027-jubilee-of-the-"constitution" (Accessed 5 April 2022)
See also: Charles Moore diary of a voyage from England to Australia, 15 February-24 July 1855 on the ship Constitution, Call number B 1319.

1 photograph of the survivors, descendants and their families of the ship Constitution, photographed on the fiftieth anniversary of their arrival in Australia, at a reunion held on Empire Day in 1905.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Title devised by cataloguer from information provided with photograph.

Photographer’s blind stamp “S. Cocks Photo” below image on mount, captioned and dated in a later hand in pencil on backing verso