The Dauntless was a 698 ton barque which departed from Greenock, Scotland, on 17th Feb 1840, with Captain Miller in charge, arriving in Port Adelaide on 10th July, 1840.
There was an unpleasant start to the voyage, with a full gale lashing the ship on the first day out and having to "lay-to" but the storm continued for 5 days. Most passengers were sea-sick but the captain wouldn't let them come on deck and little food was given to them:
20th Feb - " many passengers very sick and the steerage in a dreadful state, nothing to eat, they begged for preserved meat and it would not be granted."
21st Feb - "the people very hungry and rations still denied. This was thought a hard case by everyone. If it had not been for the kindness of some of the crew, many of the steerage passengers would have died, lasting on nothing but tea for some days."
22nd Feb - "wind blowing hard with no alteration. All the hatches batoned down. The people being kept without water till 2 o'clock, broke through the bulkhead into forecastle in order to get warm water."
23rd Feb - "Preserved meat was to have been served out today, instead the Captain was heard to say keep the hatches down but first throw them down a bag of biscuits . . . it is hoped when we come to more moderate weather, that we will get our rations more regularly served out."
24th Feb - "The place is now well cleaned and the people a little more comfortable."
5th Mar - "The Captain seem bent on keeping from the passengers and crew their just demands."
7th Mar - "Mutiny broke out between Captain and some of the sailors. A few of the sailors drunk and refused to return to duty, 8 p.m.- Dispute still continuing and all the sailors below refusing to do duty till their wrongs are redressed."
8th Mar - "A squall sprung up and crew refused to shorten sail. The Captain then applied to the passengers who sprang out of bed with great elacrity to assist in shortening sail. This had the effect of causing the whole of the mutinying crew to turn up and after the sails were reduced and the squall having passed by, the crew were addressed by the Officers before all the male passengers when they promised to turn to duty, the Captain having pledged himself to redress grievances."
The rest of the voyage was rather less stressful, although a Steward ran amok in June and had to be put in irons.
Ancestors who arrived here on that voyage were Peter Starr, his wife Catherine and children Jane, Francis Paul, Catherine and Ellen.