Mermaid Convicts, Enrolled Pensioner Guards, Prison Warders and Other Passengers 1851

This 473-ton barque was built in Calcutta in 1817. It was employed as a convict transport and left Portsmouth, England on January 9, 1851, bound for the Swan River Colony. She carried the third of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The voyage took 123 days and the Mermaid arrived in Fremantle on May 13, 1851, with 91 passengers and 208 convicts [Erickson]. J.P. Anderson and Alex Kilroy were the captain and surgeon respectively. Of the 91 passengers, all 91 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 29 pensioner guards, 23 wives, 20 sons and 19 daughters.