The Donnelly Deception 
	and
	The Mahogany Ship.  

	An exposure of the fabricated accounts of  Hugh Donnelly  
	on his alledged discoveries and descriptions of the 
	Mahogany Ship.
	
	condensed version from a forthcoming publication by the 
	author, being a history of the Discovery,Exploration and 
	Settlement of the Port Fairy and Towerhill district and 
	a biographical dictionary of the Pioneer Families,which 
	has been the subject of research for the past five years.

	Researcher,Compiler and Author: Joan Williams Fawcett
	copyright. Joan  Williams Fawcett. 1999

	This Document,or any part thereof,may not be reproduced  
	without  permission of the author Joan Fawcett.



On the coast of South West Victoria between the former trading 
ports of  Warrnambool and Port Fairy, and east of the dunes at 
the locality known as 'The Cutting", lies the remains of an 
intriguing mystery vessel. Of supposed ancient age and purported 
Dutch or Portuguese origin the vessels'  enigmatic arrival and 
subsequent resting place has been the subject of much conjecture 
and debate.


The various searches for the "Mahogany Ship",by which name the 
ancient vessel is now referred,has,from as early as 1836,
yielded a voluminous collection of anecdotal sightings and 
descriptions amongst which are the seemingly genuine recollections 
of Hugh Donnelly,whose accounts of the vessel have been generally 
regarded as a reliable foundation for searchers of the wreck 
throughout the last one hundred and ten years.[1]


Donnelly's accounts of his visits to the old wreck between the years 
1836-48 have usually been regarded as plausible especially when 
combined with his  claimed arrival in 1836 as a fifteen year old boy 
employed in the foremost whaling Fishery based near Port Fairy .[2]
In subsequent years,and especially throughout the 1890 public search 
attempt,Donnelly was to the  fore with accounts of descriptions of the 
wreck and the early history of Port Fairy, and his claims were at times 
supported by men of public credibility.

	
Throughout the known forty nine articles and letters which are 
accredited to Donnelly,are many statements of his experiences during 
colonial settlement,and in particular in regard to the ancient vessel.
[3] 


In 1901 in an article titled "The Hopkins River Revisited" Donnelly 
is recorded as having stated :-
	"...I go back to the year of 1836,and the incident that occurred to
 	two boat's crews,twelve in number. Our mission was to bring a boat 	
	back from there,that three brave fellows in search of seals had 	
	capsized in the surf ..and  which proved fatal to one of them.....
	we were under the command of the Mills brothers......" [4]

This account of the incident involving three sealers is usually 
regarded as leading to the first European sighting of the ancient 
vessel, and Donnelly's claims of his involvement lent authenticity
to the incident.


Hugh Donnelly recorded  in 1898:-

	"In describing the romantic appearance of olden times of Port
	Fairy, you move my memory back to 1836, when a boy of fifteen.. 
	with my dearest friends and protectors on the island..the Mills'..
	I know of no other living person of the present day who can give 
	as much personal knowledge of the Port as myself..."[5]


and he had previously recorded in 1891 in regard to the wreck:- 

	"..during the year 1836 up to 1846, she was disappearing in the 
	loose dry sand...Her length and beam could be made out by the point
 	of her timber.Little of her hull was visible, a trifle on her beam
 	ends,supposed to be about 70 tons burden.."[6]


During 1890, Donnelly was involved in the first major search 
attempt formed to locate the old vessel on the hummocks previously 
known as the "ancient stranger" :-

	"..The search for the Mahogany ship continues..Old Hugh Donnelly, 
	who was whaling with the Henty's, has come forward to aid in her 	
	recovery. 
	He saw her in 1836, and claims to be able to put his foot where the 
	hull is not two feet below the sand...." [7]

and Donnelly recorded in that year:-

	"..the year 1846, that was the last year I saw the wreck. 
	Several of her timbers were visible, some of them 12 or 15 inches 
	above the surface of the sand, and some three feet above the sea 	
	level..."
 
and at the same time Mr.J.Archibald, quoted Donnelly as :-

" .. describes her as lying "almost broadside on her stern,..
	fast in the brow of the loose dry sand,on the edge of the natural 
	verdure of the hummocks..."[8]


and in the following year - 1891 -  Hugh recorded:-

	"the wreck that Mr Mills alludes to never was on the hummock....
	what that gentleman must have said was that she was well up on the
 	beach, or well up to the hummock..at the time of his discovery she
 	would not be more than three or four feet above sea-level and that
	was in or about the level of her when I paid my last visit in 1846...[9]


Donnelly's accounts of the locality and description of the old vessel 
lent credence to subsequent searches over the years,and have featured 
in many articles and publications. 
His personal accounts of the colonial era of European settlement at 
Port Fairy have permeated into many published accounts of the port's 
history,and are regarded as an authentic record of the early settlement
of the region.


Recent research reveals that the Donnelly accounts are the contrived, 
inventive claims of an Irish labourer who did not arrive in Victoria 
until some five years later than he claimed,and who very likely never 
sighted  the ancient vessel as stated, if at all.
 
The only apparent genuine account of Donnelly's foremost knowledge 
of the vessel was that  published in 1881 :-


	" ...seeing you draw attention to an ancient wreck known to be 
	lying on the hummocks between Warrnambool and Belfast, I,having 
	joined the whaling party on Port Fairy Island under the command of 
	Captain Campbell in 1842, and remained several years in the service,
	 have often heard from the whalers of a wreck being seen in the 
	locality mentioned,but nothing further. 
	If it was seen by any of the old whalers, the attention of 
	Mr James Clarke,of Panmure is worth notice....".[10]


This account is a far cry from the later  claims of Donnelly that 
he had arrived at Port Fairy as a fifteen year old whaling hand,
and that he had visited the wreck during the years 1836-48,after
having been a member of the party whaling at Port Fairy in 1836.
Here he states quite clearly that he did not join the whaling party 
until 1842,as opposed to his later claims of having arrived in 1836, 
and he states that he had never seen the old vessel,only having 
heard of it from other old hands.


Donnelly initially only spent some nine years in the Port Fairy 
region from 1842 and at a later time spent a further thirteen 
years in the Towerhill-Woodford region. 


He was unlikely to have seen the vessel in 1836,or at any time after,
and states quite clearly in 1881 that he had only heard of it.
His accounts of the location and history of the vessel and also 
the early settlement of the Port Fairy region, particularly prior 
to the year 1842,are for the main,an ingenious combination of 
artfully recited colonial events and grandiose claims of personal
involvement, which  include in part, authentic information on incidents 
that  occurred during colonial settlement from the 1830's at Port Fairy 
and Portland,the latter information apparently being supplied to 
Donnelly by his old mate James Clarke.


Donnelly's letters and articles are peppered with references to his 
mate James {Jimmy} Clarke who was a Tasmanian born youth later 
employed as a whaling hand at  Portland and Port Fairy in the early 
1830's,and of whom, research supports the evidence that it was he 
who was supplying Donnelly with the information on events that 
occurred prior to 1842,many of which Donnelly later claimed as 
personal experiences.


Donnelly's Arrival in Victoria

Hugh Donnelly arrived in Victoria in the year 1841, when he and his
wife Ann [nee McNally], and his six month old son Thomas  arrived  
together at Melbourne on the 30th of July,as bounty emigrants,aboard 
the Westminster, the vessel bringing assisted British emigrants 
to Victoria through the agency of John Marshall for Messrs Enscoe and 
James,of Port Phillip.[11]

Donnelly is recorded as an illiterate 26 yo labourer, and his wife 
Ann as a 20 yo house servant and along with their son Thomas,they 
are listed as being natives of the county of Armagh.
Also on board the vessel was Donnelly's sister-in-law Ann Fox,
formerly Donnelly, nee McDonald, and her husband Hugh Fox, 
along with Ann Fox's four Donnelly children by her prior marriage 
to Patrick Donnelly.[12] 
The Donnelly's are recorded under the surname of Donnell, but Hugh 
Donnelly later claimed in 1856 that though he arrived under the 
surname Donnell on the Westminster, his correct name was 
Donnelly.[13]


Donnelly at Port Fairy

	Hugh Donnelly made his way to Port Fairy,and claims to have signed 
	on with Captain Campbell during 1842.[14] Campbell was in charge 
	of a whaling and grazing station with the forementioned being 
	established on Griffith's Island during 1836 and the latter being 
	a large run established around the same time between the Merri and 
	Moyne Rivers, and extending northwards into Yangery, and which in 
	part became the reknowned Farnham Survey of later years. [15]

	Donnelly was in the company of the early whaling hands of the  
	Fishery from about 1842 until 1846,and on several occasions claimed
	 to be a member of Charles Mill's boat crew.He would more likely 
	have  served only as an oarsman and spare hand on the whaling boats,  
	the other positions available in the crew entailed  experience and 
	the men were usually hand-picked by the headsmen specifically for 
	that reason, and these men had often worked in the same crew for
	many years.The men employed by the Company at Port Fairy usually 
	performed their whaling duties during the months of April through 
	till September, and in the interim were employed as  hands on the 
	Farm,especially in the bark-stripping and skin collecting trade, 
	and part of their duties involved shepherding. After the whaling 
	industry faltered during  1846 ,many of the old hands dispersed to 
	other employment.

Donnelly took up the employ of sawyer until 1851,and he later claimed to
	having relinquished his sawpit in October to a Mr Burrell for £40
	[16] after which he claimed to have made his way to the goldfields.
	This would be a likely course of avenue and other contempory accounts
	confirm the major exodus to the fields at that time.

	There is no contemporary evidence to suggest that Donnelly returned 
	to the Port Fairy District from 1851 until the year 1861.
	In 1852, there were letters awaiting him at the Port Fairy Post 
	Office which remained unclaimed for some time.[17]


	In the early months of 1853, a Hugh Donnelly appeared twice before 
	the police courts in Geelong,[18] It is difficult to distinguish if 
	this is the relevant Hugh Donnelly  or his nephew Hugh  who resided 
	at Indented Head,[19]  though given the ease of detection in 1856 by 
	police of  Hugh Donnelly's involvement in another stolen horse 
	incident,from Geelong, it would suggest the possibility that Hugh  
	was  known to police.


	Hugh Donnelly claimed both on his conviction record of 1856 and upon
	 his second marriage in 1861  that he was a widower, with three 
	 children,with a date given of 1855 on the latter certificate for the
	 death of his wife,and on the former he stated that he three children
	 were living at Geelong.It is possible that Hugh made his way to the
	 Indented head area between the years 1851-56 to  where his relations
	 - the Donnelly and Fox families- resided.[20]

Donnelly's arrest and conviction in 1856

	On the 16th of July 1856 Hugh Donnelly, was convicted  for the 
	theft of a horse from Geelong on the 28th of the month prior, on 
	which date he had been arrested on the charge,and  Hugh's subsequent 
	trial ,held at Melbourne resulted in a sentence of guilty and a 
	conviction of  "seven years on the roads." Donnelly was known 
	" a little" to the owner of the horse, who lived at MuddyYalloak, 
	near Geelong,indicating that Donelly probably resided at that time
	in the region.
 	Donnelly's conviction records confirm his arrival on the Westminster
	in 1841,that his correct name was Donnelly though he arrived under 
	the name Donnell, he claimed to be a widower, and that his three 
	children had four cousins of the same name [Donnelly] at Geelong. 
	[21]


	Donnelly was described in 1856 as being 5'10,stout made,with a 
	florid complexion,sandy hair,hazel eyes, and a large nose,mouth and 
	chin.Smallpox marked his right temple and he had small scar on the 
	centre of his forehead and his nose had been broken. [22]


	In 1859,Hugh Donnelly was granted a discharge on the the 7th May, 
	conditional upon his residing in the district of Avoca and that he 
	report to the station at Amherst,and he was granted a ticket of leave
	during the week ending May 10th 1859 . On the 28th of June, Donnelly 
	was granted permission to reside in the Ararat district,and was 
	granted a Certificate of Freedom during the month of May, 1861 .[23]
	


Donnelly's return to Towerhill

	Hugh returned to the Port Fairy area,and on the 18th September 1861 
	married Mary Jane Miller at the Church of England in Warrnambool [24]
	and the records show that Hugh stated he was a widower from the year 
	1855, he had three children living and none deceased.[25]

	The Donnelly family was increased by further children who were born 
	in the Woodford,Towerhill,Yarpturk district from 1861 - 76,whereafter
	Hugh departed to the Laang /Brucknell district where he had purchased
	his farm of over 174 acres in 1878, [26].


	In 1890, Hugh was feted on a return visit to Port Fairy. He 
	appears to have become swept up in the budding search for the 
	Mahogany ship and he promised to assist in the search for the wreck 
	he claimed to know so well, but was suddenly called home on urgent 
	business [27].  He returned again at a later time after pleading
	a place in the search team,and did become involved briefly in the 
	search but claimed that  the dramatic changes in the coastline 
	and his orders to work on Mill's bearings and not his own 
	sighting were the reasons for  lack of success. [28]


	From 1890, until near the time of his death in 1903,[29] 
	Hugh Donnelly produced a  litany of ingenious claims in regard to his
	involvement in nearly every major incident that occurred in the Port 
	Fairy region during colonial settlement, amongst them his 
	involvement in '36 in the Hopkins River Incident and in '39 his 
	account of  the rescue of the passengers and crew of the Children.
	He also later claimed to been involved in formative civic affairs in 
	regards to the townships of Belfast East and Warrnambool, including 
	the survey of the Warrnambool bay. He claimed to have personally met
	 Captain Armstrong,who along with Captain Wishart,is credited with 
	the foremost baptism of Port Fairy Bay, and gave several accounts 
	of being involved in miraculous rescues of ship's crews from 
	dangerous wrecks,and gave  an implausible account of a herculean 
	encounter with  "monsters of the deep' whilst a member of the Mill's
	crew.He was supposedly involved in the incident involving 
	Port Fairy's only bushranger, and hinted as his participation in a 
	rum smuggling incident on behalf of his employers.[30]


	Only on one occasion was Donnelly very nearly publicly exposed, 
	but with the backing of James Clarke he outbluffed his opponent 
	George Philmore and managed to retain his credibility,though 
	Philmore's was the more accurate of recorders of Donnelly's arrival 
	as he claimed Hugh did not arrive at Port Fairy until 1843.[31]


	During his time at Port Fairy,Hugh Donnelly later appears as having 
	been caught up by stirring accounts of the exciting lawless heyday 
	of the colonial whaling trade  which combined with an obvious 
	fascination for the ports' colonial history -  and the flattering 
	attention which attended his involvement in the Mahogany Ship search
	 in 1890 - results in a seemingly genuine desire
	to record the foremost history of the region and in particular 
	accounts of the wreck. 
	After the death of James Clarke in 1898,Donnelly's claims of 
	involvement in the foremost events became much more extravagant 
	in detail.[32]

	
	Unfortunately the accounts of Donnelly are rendered suspect and 
	unreliable by his claims which were oft based on accounts
	of others prior experiences and publications,and the resulting 
	cunning mix of historical facts and self - adventures leaves the 
	researcher in a mire of untenable information,particularly in 
	regard to the whereabouts of the old vessel.


Donnelly's claim,later fostered by another family member, to 
the existence of a journal alledgedly compiled by Hugh Donnelly 
and containing information and  details of the ship,supposedly 
noted in 1836 upon a visit to the site by Donnelly and Capt Mills,
has offered false hope to seachers for over one hundred years  
as to the possible existence of the only known contempory recording 
of the whereabouts of the wreck.
Further suggestion that Hugh Donnelly received fragments of the old 
vessel {and had them made into rulers}-along with a chart of
the vessel's location from the decamped surveyor William Pickering, 
in gratitude for Donnelly's assistance in helping Pickering to leave 
the district, is most unlikely.
Hugh Donnelly was serving a gaol sentence at the time of Pickering's 
departure.


Any possibility that Donnelly may have worked at the fishery prior 
to 1841 and returned to Ireland to marry, and then yet again return 
to Victoria as a labourer, appears to be voided by the lack of any 
one reference to him being listed on any vessel in and out of Tasmania,
especially to and from Port Fairy and Portland,prior to 1840, as 
opposed to the documenting by the author of many recorded trips of the
whaling crew members working for the foremost Fisheries established
at Portland and Port Fairy.Donnelly made it quite clear in 1881 when
he stated publicly that he had never seen the ship, but had only
heard of it from other whaling hands.

Evidence to support the existence of the wreck in the dunes
below Towerhill can be found from  more reliable sources than 
Hugh Donnelly.





About The Author
Joan Fawcett is a local history researcher who is currently writing Pioneer Speake
(an account of the European discovery and settlement of Port Fairy and Tower Hill).She
also has one of the largest private collections in relation to the Mahogany Ship.
Joan's research had led to a possible identification of the old wreck in the dunes which
supports her belief that the vessel is not an ancient ship of discovery.
Joan has spent nearly seventeen years researching local history and is currently preparing 
her work for publication.Her work is self funded.

Links
Richard Osburne and his Mahogany Ship claim

Tafe Collection of  Mahogany Ship newspaper articles

Mahogany Ship and the China Syndrome-Synopsis


Sign Guestbook
View Guestbook

The Author would like to thank:-Philip Latimer  (Mahogany Ship expert) for his 	support.

sources for this article can be obtained from Joan Fawcett.