'MADAGASCAR'
Crew - 60
10th July 1837. Due to sail from Gravesend, Commander W. H. Walker, for Portsmouth.
16th July 1837. Due to sail from Portsmouth for Calcutta.
20th July 1837. Sailed from Portsmouth for Bengal.
20th July 1838. Sailed from Gravesend for Portsmouth.
25th July 1838. Sailed from Portsmouth, Captain Walker, for Bengal with Colonel and Mrs. Boyd and family; Brigadier Penny; Captain Walker; Mrs. Swinhoe and two daughters; Captain and Mrs. Scott; Miss Boscawen; Captain Bonham; Mr. and Mrs. Lalley; Miss Howell; Messrs. C. E. Adam, and Earle, for Bengal.
13th August 1838. Sailed from Falmouth for Bengal.
22nd January 1839. Arrived at Bengal from the Cape and London.
5th July 1840. Due to sail from Gravesend, Commander W. H. Walker, for Portsmouth.
10th July 1840. Due to sail from Portsmouth for Calcutta.
9th July 1841. Due to sail, Commander C. G. Weller, for Calcutta.
10th September 1844. Due to sail from Gravesend. Commander C. G. Weller, for Calcutta.
19th January 1849. Passed the Isle of Wight, Captain Hight, from the Cape of Good Hope.
February 1849. Arrived in the docks from Calcutta, Madras, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena respectively has brought from the first mentioned place 12 cases of rupees consigned to an eminent commercial firm and 2 boxes of rupees consigned to order, from Madras 1 box of specie addressed to order, and from the Cape 7 boxes of specie addressed to different firms in the metropolis.
11th March 1853. Sailed from Plymouth, Captain Fortescue William Harris.
10th June 1853. Arrived at Melbourne. As a result of the Gold Rush fourteen of the crew jumped ship for the diggings.
10th August 1853. Preparing to sail with a cargo of wool, rice and about two tonnes of gold valued at £240,000 and about 110 passengers for London when police went on board and arrested a bushranger John Francis who was found to have been responsible for robbery on the 20th July.
12th August 1853. Sailed from Melbourne after only three replacement crew were signed on. She was never seen again. When the ship became overdue many theories were floated, including spontaneous combustion of the wool cargo, hitting an iceberg and, most controversially, being seized by criminal elements of the passengers and/or crew and scuttled after the gold was stolen and the remaining passengers and crew were murdered.
