It is impossible to be sure of who was on board the Africaine. The ship was chartered by Robert Gouger and John Brown from the joint owners Thomas Finlay and John Finlay Duff, who commanded the ship. Being a privately-owned vessel, there is no record of the crew beyond the name of the master and the casual mention of a few in diaries kept on board.

The identity of cabin and intermediate passengers has to be gleaned from various accounts and letters written by passengers. Brown and Gouger were government officials but the rest were landholders or others making their own way to the new colony on their own account, Thomas for instance to publish the first newspaper. We learn that the two cabins at the stern were occupied by Captain Duff and Gouger, and the next two forward by Hallett and Brown. Beyond the cuddy, seen in a Skipper watercolour to have stretched the breadth of the ship, were cabins for intermediate passengers. Beyond them would have been the open area fitted with two tiers of bunks for the emigrants, and finally the forecastle for the crew.

The Africaine was contracted to carry emigrants for the Colonization Commissioners. The ‘Register of Emigrant Labourers Applying for a Free Passage to South Australia’ lists those people considering life in the new colony and generally indicates on which ship those deciding to proceed were embarked. However uncertainty can arise from clerical errors and last minute changes, and mistakes have crept into lists of passengers compiled over the years as a result of faulty memory or confusion. Amongst the emigrants were a number of South Australian Company servants whose names are also recorded in the Directors’ Minutes. Deacon, who had entered into an arrangement with the Company, was ineligible for a free passage and occupied an intermediate cabin.

Officers:

Master: John Finlay Duff
Mates: Smith (chief mate)
Constable (second mate, left at the Cape)

Crew:

Ramsden

Cabin & intermediate passengers:

John Brown
Mrs Brown
Maria Josepha Brown
William Archer Deacon
Mrs Duff
Dr Charles George Everard
Mrs Everard
daughter
James Everard
Arthur W. Gliddon
Robert Gouger
Harriet Gouger
John Hallett
Mrs Hallett & 3 children
Charles Nantes
John Michael Skipper
Robert Thomas
Mary Thomas
Frances Thomas
Mary Thomas
Helen Thomas
William Thomas
W.H. Ward
Benjamin Wickham
William Williams

Emigrants:

John Diment Bagg
Henry Bushell
Mrs Bushell
John Bushell
Caroline Bushell
Jeremiah Calnan
Mrs Calnan
John Calnan
Charles Calnan
Michael Calnan
Mary Ann Calnan
Margaret Clark
James Coltman
Mrs Coltman
Daniel Cox
James Cronk
Mary Ann East
Samuel East
Mrs East
Jane East
Elizabeth East
William East
Samuel East junior
Sarah East
Charles John Everard
William Everard
Robert Fisher
Joseph Augustus Hill
Abraham Irwin
Mrs Irwin
Andrew Jacobs
Henry James Lee
Joseph Lee
G.C. Lewis
Mrs Lewis
Mary Lillywhite
Hugh MacDonald
Mary Martin
Martha Navy
E.W. Osborne (lost on Kangaroo Island)
John Edward Pollard
Mrs Pollard
George Pursill
Mrs Pursill
John Pursill
John Michael Skipper
John Slater (lost on Kangaroo Island)
Benjamin Smith
John Snoswell
William Kyffin Thomas
Mary Anne Vincent
Richard Warren
Frederick Whitman
Daniel Wickham
Eliza Wickham
James Windibank
Alfred Young

Information compiled by Mr Bob Sexton

See below for images of the original ship’s manifest for the 1836 voyage of the Africaine. Images courtesy of Dianne Cummings.