The Exact from St. Heliers, Jersey.

Date: 5 Jul 1852 to 13 Nov 1852
Location: Saint Helier, Jersey

In June 1852. George Deslandes & Son, a leading firm of shipbuilders and shipowners in Jersey, advertised that their newly built brig Exact (204 tons) would soon be sailing for Australia. The vessel was equipped to carry passengers, whether they were gold diggers or emigrants.

The Exact sailed from St Helier, Jersey, on 5 July carrying fifteen crew and ninety-five passengers. The passengers were nearly all natives of Jersey and by occupation most were tradesmen, farmers and carpenters. There was no news of the Exact until October, when it was learned she had put into Bahia in Brazil for water.

The vessel's master, Tom de Gruchy, considered that the surgeon on board the Exact was a passenger and not one of the crew. The surgeon, however, asserted the opposite and demanded that he should be paid £200 for his services or he would leave the ship. The captain refused to pay the money and the surgeon went ashore at Bahia.

A deputation of passengers then went to see the British consul and said that the vessel must not continue her voyage without a surgeon. Captain de Gruchy engaged a Brazilian doctor as surgeon for the sum of £400, but the doctor refused to go on board the Exact. Finally de Gruchy sailed from Bahia without a surgeon and without a dozen of his passengers who were left behind in his haste to get to sea.

The brig reached Port Philip, Melbourne, on 13 November 1852, sixty-four days from Bahia and landed her passengers safe and in good health.

Jamieson, Alan. “The Channel Islands and Australia: Maritime Links in the 1850s.” The Great Circle, vol. 5, no. 1, Australian Association for Maritime History, 1983, pp. 40–47, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41562425.