This 708 ton ship was built in Sunderland in 1853. It was employed twice as a convict transport for Western Australia and left London, England on March 19, 1857 bound for the Swan River Colony. She carried the eighteenth of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. On this voyage the Clara took 106 days and arrived in Fremantle on July 3, 1857 with 95 passengers and 262 convicts [Erickson]. Henry Peachey and Jas. Caldwell were the captain and surgeon respectively.

There were no deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists and 262 convict numbers were assigned for the voyage ranging from (4239 to 4500).

Of the 95 passengers mentioned above, all 95 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 29 pensioner guards, 23 wives, 21 sons and 22 daughters.

This 708 ton ship was built in Sunderland in 1853. It was employed twice as a convict transport for Western Australia and left London, England on January 11, 1864 bound for the Swan River Colony. On this second voyage she carried the thirtieth of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The voyage took 93 days and the Clara arrived in Fremantle on April 13, 1864 with 112 passengers and 301 convicts [Erickson]. R. Burrows and William Crawford were the captain and surgeon respectively.

There were no deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists and 301 convict numbers were assigned for the voyage ranging from (7608 to 7908). [Bateson] seems to agree with both other sources on this occasion.

Of the 112 passengers mentioned above, 87 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 28 pensioner guards, 20 wives, 21 sons and 18 daughters. The other 25 passengers have not been accounted for but were possibly cabin passengers or regular soldiers.

The surgeon's journal for the voyage is preserved in the Public Record Office (PRO) in London. Researchers can view a copy on the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) microfilm reel 3181 which is held in most major libraries and archives offices throughout Australia.

Researchers may also be interested in another source which Ian Nicholson's "Log of Logs" says is only held at the Australian National Library in Canberra. Apparently it was called "A Voice of our Exiles or the 'Clara' Weekly Journal" and was possibly edited by Francis S. Simpson who was convict (7846) on the voyage.