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This Page was Last Updated on 20th April 2014 (Easter Day)
Shooting Star
A1 ship, 1518t. (o.m.), 1362/1160t.; 1853…1867
Jan Glasby (17 March 2002) kindly forwarded the following report from a Melbourne's Port Phillip Herald of Saturday 28 February 1857, since augmented by reports in The Argus:
SHOOTING STAR 1857 From Liverpool 15 Nov 1856 - 27 Feb 1857
* Port Phillip Herald, Sat 28 Feb 1857
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE
February 26 - Shooting Star 1363 tons, John Giles, from LIverpool 16 November.Passengers - ?, James George Heaney, Esq, surgeon, J.H. Molyneux, assistant surgeon, twenty four in the second cabin, 230 in steerage.
Bright Bros & Co.
* The Argus [Melbourne], Thursday 26 February 1857:
ARRIVED (PORT PHILLIP HEADS).
February 25.-Emily Jane, schooner, from Sydney.
February 26.-Shooting Star, ship, from Liverpool.
* The Argus, Saturday 28 February 1857 (p4):
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
ARRIVED (Hobson's Bay)
February 26—Shooting Star, ship, 1,362 tons, John Gillies, from Liverpool 16th November. Passengers—Cabin : Messrs. E. Molyneux, W Eyres, Wm. Hardie, J. Reid, James George Beaney, Esq., surgeon, J. H. Molyneux, Esq., assistant surgeon. Twenty-four in the second cabin, and two hundred and thirty in the steerage. Bright Brothers and Co., agents.
* The Argus, Saturday 14 March 1857 (p5):
PORT OF MELBOURNE.
ARRIVALS.
MAR.
25 Shooting Star, B. s., 1,362, J. Gillies, Liverpool.- Bright, Brothers, and Co.
[B. - British; s. - ship]
* The Argus, Monday 23 March 1857 (p4):
CLEARED OUT.
March 21.-Ariel, schooner, 138 tons, G. Macallister. for Launceston, John Cooper, agent.
March 21.-Shooting Star, ship, 1862 tons, John Gillies, for Bombay, in ballast. Bright Brothers and Co., agents.
 
The Argus, Tuesday 11 August 1857 (p4), reported further on the Shooting Star:
A LUCKY SHIP.-An enterprising shipowner of Boston despatched one of his vessels, the clipper ship Shooting Star, last July, with an assorted cargo hence to Shanghai, China. She arrived there in season to dispose of her cargo before the troubles between the British and the Celestials became an open rupture, at Canton; but too late to obtain a return cargo of tea. When the news of active hostilities reached here, the owner of the Shooting Star concluded that it would prove a losing business to him, and two weeks since he would gladly have disposed of his vessel for 25,000 dollars. By the last mail he received the gratifying intelligence that his captain had sold the Shooting Star to an opium trader in those parts, for 40,000 dollars, cash down-a sum equivalent, at the existing rates of exchange, to about 60,000 dollars here. When it is stated that the same vessel had twice previously cleared her original cost (about 45,000 dollars) this last stroke of good fortune will be considered more remarkable.-New York Journal of Commerce..

The Shooting Star made a passage from ?England to Geelong and Port Phillip in 1856 for the White Star Line. She returned to Melbourne in March 1858 for the Black Ball Line of British and Australian clipper packets, sailing from embarking passengers in Liverpool bound for Melbourne (and some for Sydney). On this voyage mastered by Allcock, anticipated to take 140 days, she embarked the equivalent of 285 statute adults. Her passengers were predominantly Irish, though some Scotch and English were carried. Amongst the Irish were the Eaton family, comprising Robert [Coleman] Eaton, 35, described as a Matron, Rebecca Eaton [Robert's mother], Ann [Jane] Eaton, 33 [Robert's sister], Sarah Eaton, 23 [nee Beattie, Robert's wife], Eliza Eaton [Robert's niece]. The misaligned passenger list appears to describe Robert as a Matron, Rebecca and Ann as Wife, Sarah as Spinster and Eliza as Child. Robert was in fact a medical practitioner.

An Eliza Betty arrived in Melbourne on 29 March 1858 aboard the Rodney, which had sailed from Plymouth on 25 September 1857; it is possible that she was the sister on Sarah Eaton; after disembarking this Eliza went to stay with a Michael McGregor at the Rob Roy Hotel in Collingwood. She was listed as 20 year old literate member of the Church of England.

The Shooting Star made another passage to Melbourne in 1858, departing Liverpool on 16 September and arriving in Melbourne on 11 December, before moving to the Depot on 15th instant. On this trip she carried the equivalent of 396½ statute adults, including 30 year old William Phair, a literate member of the Church of England who disembarked for Melbourne on his own account on the 16th instant.

Brett (1928) mentions that the 1160 ton Shooting Star, under Captain Edward James Allen, departed Liverpool on 11 August 1859 to arrive crippled in Auckland on 30 November, after a voyage of 111 days. Her mainmast was fished, and main top-gallant down. She delivered 173 passengers; there had been two deaths and two births during the passage.

Source(s): Glasby (pers comm 2002).
Brett mentions that a 422 ton Shooting Star under Captain Gillies left Downs on 23 December 1874, arriving in Auckland on 17 May 1875 after a voyage of 145 days, having encountered heavy weather nearly all the way.
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If you have any queries about this vessel, or information to add, please eMail
Ross Beattie ( rossbtgenealogy@gmail.com )
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 This page first uploaded on12th July 1999