Index   Back to Colonial Events 1816

The Sydney Gazette 10 August 1816

DEATH ON THE ELIZABETH HENRIETTA

An open boat, with five of the crew of the brig Elizabeth Henrietta arrived from Hunter’s River on Wednesday afternoon, with the very disagreeable intelligence of that vessel’s having upset at her moorings in the River on Tuesday the 30^th alt. Between 4 and 5 in the morning; by which melancholy accident the wife of Mr. Ross, the master of the vessel, was unfortunately drowned; as was also one of the crew, a young man named Patrick Fitzgerald. Mrs. Ross was in the cabin when the fatal accident occurred, and had no possible chance of avoiding her dreary destiny; and the young man, Fitzgerald, was as unfortunately below, in the fore part of the vessel. The body of Mrs. Ross was drawn out of the cabin in the afternoon of the same day, but that of her fellow sufferer had not been found when the unwelcome information came away. On receipt of the melancholy information His Excellency the governor immediately dispatched His majesty’s brig Lady Nelson accompanied by the Nautilus of Calcutta to proceed to Hunter’s River for the purpose of recovering the vessel, the accomplishment of which, with such efficient aid, will, there is no doubt, be very soon effected.