Survivor's Cape 1, for Ellen Galvin

Ellen Galvin was one of the six surviving women from the Neva shipwreck.

Survivor's Cape 1, for Ellen Galvin

paper from marine macroalgae and shore plants on silk

78 x 60 cm (framed)

$950.00

This artwork can be purchased from the King Island Gallery.

There were 3 members of the Galvin family aboard the Neva.

At 64 years, Johanna Galvin, a widow from Limerick, was the oldest of the Neva convicts. Two of her five daughters, Johanna Sweeney, 34 years, and Ellen Galvin, 19 years, accompanied her.  Johanna Galvin had been convicted together with Johanna Sweeney and another daughter, Bridget Hayes, 28 years, for stealing money and apparel. Ellen had been convicted of larceny in a separate incident.

Bridget and her infant son sailed on the Roslin Castle which departed Cork for NSW 10 months after the Neva.

Ellen was one of only 6 Neva convicts who survived the shipwreck. She reached the shore clinging to timber wreckage, having been rescued by first mate Bennett.

The Neva survivors were taken from King Island to Launceston in June 1835 on the Sarah Ann. Soon afterwards Ellen was assigned in the vicinity of Norfolk Plains. She proceeded to commit at least ten further offences, mainly unauthorised absences and drunkenness. She married William Lawrence in 1838, a pardoned English convict who had been transported in 1820 for stealing a horse. Ellen was finally granted her freedom in 1842.