All aboard the Brig Amity!

Did you know the Brig Amity was built in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1816 and for several years was used as a merchant trading vessel between America and Britain.

The Brig Amity replica started 1975

A project to build a replica of the started in 1972. After much discussion and research, construction started in 1975, with local boat builder Mr Stan Austin as project supervisor and Mr Pieter van de Brugge as leading shipwright. Other local craftsmen joined the team, with the aim of making the replica the focal point of celebratins of the 150th anniversary of the brig's arrival.

brig amity with major edmund lockyer

The Brig Amity set sail from Sydney on 9th November 1826, carrying a party under Major Edmund Lockyer to form a settlement at King George Sound which on the 21st of January was named Fredricktown after the Kings brother.

The Brig Amity replica

this is the brig amity albany

brig amity tours

the brig amity is in albany wa

After a difficult voyage, the first half battling through heavy weather in Bass Strait and the second enduring the summer heat of the westward run, the brig reached Princess Royal Harbour on Christmas Day 1826 moored then they went ashore Boxing Day.

The passengers and crew

The settlement party comprised the commandant Major Edmund Lockyer, a captain, surgeon, storekeeper, 18 rank and file soldiers, and 23 convicts, mostly tradesmen. Also on board were the vessel's own crew and a naval party comprising Lt Colson Festing, a quartermaster, midshipman and a marine batman - and stores for six months, including sheep and pigs.

Some facts about the Brig.

When you visit this full-size replica, try to imagine more than 50 men, together with stores, sheep and pigs, sharing this small vessel in a difficult journey taking over six weeks.

The Amity was a 148 ton brig used in several notable voyages of exploration and settlement in Australia in the early nineteenth century.

In 1823 she was purchased by the Scottish Ralston Family to be fitted out for their emigration to Van Diemen's Land. Under the command of Captain McMeckan she departed from Stranraer in southern Scotland on 15 November 1823, travelling via Dublin, across the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro and arriving in Hobart exactly five months later on 15 April 1824. 21 passengers made the journey, including Robert Ralston, his wife Elizabeth, two sons and six daughters, as well as cargo and livestock including two bulls and four cows from Scotland.

Ralston later sold the brig to the Government of New South Wales in Sydney where she was used for exploration and supply voyages.

Later sold back into private ownership, in 1831, the Amity was operated in Tasmania until, in June 1845, she was wrecked in Bass Strait on an uncharted sandbank.

When you vist and see through the Brig it is like reliving history and you can also take a trip on "The Incredible Journey or Albany's Riverboat Kalgan Queen Scenic Cruises"a must do when in Albany and hear a live commentry on the first WA settlement.

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brig amity crise

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