Hell Ship: The True Story of the Plague Ship Ticonderoga, One of the Most Calamitous Voyages in Australian History

by Michael Veitch

For more than a century and a half, a grim tale has passed down through Michael Veitch's the story of the Ticonderoga, a clipper ship that sailed from Liverpool in August 1852, crammed with 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 crept into Port Phillip Bay flying the dreaded yellow flag of contagion. On her horrific three-month voyage, deadly typhus had erupted, killing a quarter 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. Panic struck 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. James William Henry Veitch was the ship's assistant surgeon, on his first appointment 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.

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 18, 2020

About the author

Michael Veitch spent much of his youth writing and performing in television sketch comedy programs, before freelancing as a columnist and arts reviewer for newspapers and magazines. For four years he presented Sunday Arts, the national arts show on ABC television, and produced two books indulging his life-long interest in the aircraft of the Second World War, Flak and Fly. He lives in Hobart, where he presents ABC radio.

Books:
Hailing from a family of journalists, Veitch wrote Flak – True stories from the men who flew in World War II published in 2006 by Pan Macmillan and later, Fly: True stories of courage and adventure from the airmen of World War II published by Penguin Australia in August 2008. A third book, The Forgotten Islands, exploring the lesser-known islands of Bass Strait, was published by Penguin Australia in August 2011.

Further publications include a history of the CSIRO marine exploration vessel, Southern Surveyor will be released in late 2015 (CSIRO Publishing) and a further volume of Second World War airman stories, which will also be published late 2015 (Penguin Books).

Reviews

[Bel Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

After having been to the quarantine station at Point Nepean many times and knowing a small part of its history, this book was an amazing account of the harrowing stories that led to its original creation. Bravo.