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Written by Penelope

Category: General

Published: 05 November 2009

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In the Wake of the Hodgetts

by Penelope Kerr

Two of my ancestors Thomas Hodgetts and his wife Harriet arrived in Australia on the Second Fleet, Thomas as a convict on the vessel Scarborough; Harriet took up the Government's offer of free passage to the Colony on the same Fleet and travelled on the Neptune. The conditions on the Second Fleet were grim. Of 1,006 convicts on this voyage 26% died on the voyage and nearly 40% were dead within eight months of landing.¹

Thomas worked as a blacksmith in the colony and he and Harriet lived in Sydney Town(1790- 1800 and 1806- 1816), Norfolk Island (1800 – 1806) and Pitt Town (1816-.1819). In February 1819 they sailed for Launceston to join John, the eldest of their nine Australian- born children. All their surviving children except Maria Mary travelled with them. Maria by then was married to Thomas Graham and stayed in Wilberforce.

For some years I have wanted to travel to Tasmania to visit Longford and the Hodgetts' graves. As I am descended from Maria Hodgetts who stayed in NSW it was mainly Harriet and Thomas who drew me as there are no other Tasmanians amongst my direct ancestors.

In recent years we have sailed extensively through the Pacific visiting the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, but this year we were setting out for another major adventure, the crossing of Bass Strait. Sailors respect (even fear) this crossing and the accepted wisdom is that it is necessary to wait in Eden for the right weather so that wind and seas are both of manageable proportions. On that shallow body of open water a strong wind can blow up the waves to dangerous heights, as the disastrous 1998 Sydney to Hobart race proved. As cruisers rather than racers, we try to steer clear of these conditions.

On Sunday February 1^st 2009 my husband and I set out from Broken Bay, north of Sydney, on our 11.1 metre (36 foot) yacht. We had decided to take it slowly, sailing by day rather than overnight where possible and stopping along the NSW South Coast when the weather was unfavourable. As it turned out we had prolonged periods of very bad weather. For most of February strong winds were blowing from the south, so we would be sailing directly into the huge seas they whipped up. On some days the waves were up to three metres high, with a swell in addition of up to three metres. Sailing in such seas is unpleasant for the crew and demanding for the boat so we did not venture out then but instead enjoyed exploring the ports along the way including Jervis Bay, Bateman's Bay and Broulee. When the weather allowed we sailed very comfortably and relatively quickly, though compared with other forms of travel the pace we set is very slow. For our yacht “quick” means averaging about 11 kilometres an hour (6 knots).

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