Still looking for a picture
of "Ocean Chief"

"OCEAN CHIEF (1856)"

The OCEAN CHIEF was a wooden ship of 1026 tons built in 1853, by J C MORTON
of Thomastin, in Maine USA measuring 182.1ft x 34ft x 22.5ft
In 1854 she was purchased by James Baines for the BLACKBALL LINE
which had a contract to deliver mail to Australia.
The Blackball Line vessels carried more passengers to Australia than any other line. They were comfortable, had well ventilated quarters for
steerage passengers, state rooms for cabin passengers
and were strongly rigged.

THE OCEAN CHIEF arrived in Melbourne in January 1856
CLICK HERE to learn about the journey from England to Australia.

One of the 'assisted passengers' in Steerage was LETITIA JENKINSON (listed as Jenkenson) from County Carlow Ireland,
Possibly a Quaker, she came to Australia to help her cousin with the children. We are yet to discover the identity of this cousin.
Were they on the ship too ? and where did they settle after THE OCEAN CHIEF arrived in Melbourne in January 1856 ?
Letitia married John Samuel Holmes two years later, in 1858 at the Snowdon Cottage, Emerald Hills, South Melbourne
(possibly the temporary abode of the minister, whilst the Church was being built in 1857-58).

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT : LETITIA & JOHN HOLMES and their family CLICK HERE
Read Sir Charles Duffy's account of the voyage CLICK HERE The fate of The Ocean Chief CLICK HERE

The above list for the OceanChief voyage which arrived in Melbourne in 1856, contains 310 passengers.
We understand, from the PROV, that there were actually 362 passengers. We are currently trying to identify those not on this list.

Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), a passenger of this voyage, wrote:
After careful inquiry I took my passage in the 'Ocean Chief', a vessel of the Black Ball Line, on October 8, 1855 bound for Melbourne.
I embarked at Liverpool and my family were on board before me. When I went to their cabin and saw them actually at sea, to sail to a country where
I knew next to no one, my ribs seemed to close on my heart for a moment with a painful and perilous responsibility; but my wife bade me trust in God,
and we faced the future without trepidation. I found the captain a frank and friendly Nova Scotian of Irish descent, and I speedily saw that we were
destined to get on comfortably. Among my shipmates was Wilson Gray, who had sold his share in the "Freeman's Journal" in order to adventure
in the new and happy land.

On the first Sunday at sea I may be said to have begun my Australian career. The bell was rung at ten o'clock in the morning, and the captain
read passages from the Book of Common Prayer to the bulk of the cabin passengers. When he finished I came out of my cabin and asked him
if there was an Established Church on board the Ocean Chief. "Certainly not," he said.
"Well, have the goodness to have the bell rung again, and I will read prayers for some hundred Irish Catholics in the second class and steerage."
The captain complied, and I got through the business fairly well, and continued the practice till the end of the voyage.

For the first fortnight the good ship never got beyond a day's sail from Ireland. Up to the Equator we had as bad a passage as could be conceived
a head wind for a longer time than the captain had ever heard of in the North Atlantic, and then a longer calm than he ever remembered at sea.
But when we crossed the line a favourable wind filled the sails for eight thousand miles almost without interruption, and we saw the new land lying
on the lap of the Pacific within eighty days, during which we passed through two winters and two summers. All voyages are alike, and the recreations identical—bets on the day's sail, sweepstakes on the date of reaching Port Phillip, deck billiards in the morning and loo and spoil five in the evening,
and in the end concerts and amateur theatricals duller than a Dutch sermon. Some of us aimed to learn a little navigation, or at least to understand the ropes, and to make some acquaintance with Jack Tar. Daily confabulations with Wilson Gray on the destiny of the new country, and all we hoped to do and
achieve there, gave a little flavour to life, and relieved the monotony of the wearisome amusements.

When we sailed into the noble land-locked harbour of Port Phillip, entered by a natural gateway called the Heads, the health officer who visited the ship brought me a letter requesting me not to land when we reached Melbourne till I received a deputation who desired to welcome me to the new country.
I was much struck with a generosity which sprung forward to meet me before I set foot upon the shore.

In 1862 THE OCEAN CHIEF was sent to New Zealand under Captain T Brown, with 4000 sheep. While entering Bluff Harbour on Jan 13, 1862 she was struck
by a gale and driven ashore on TIWAI point. The next day she was refloated and berthed at Bluff Wharf. In the middle of the night the crew set fire to her believing that they could get rich on the near-by gold fields easier than working the ship. They also damaged the pumps and destroyed the fire hoses so the ship would never sail again. To save the wharf the OCEAN CHIEF was towed away and scuttled in shallow water.
A reward of Ł200 (pounds sterling) was offered by Captain Brown for evidence to prosecute the crew but nobody ever came forward. She burnt to the water line while the captain painted her last moments, that painting formed the cover of the book BLUFF HARBOUR published in 1976 by JOHN HALL JONES.