My husband had an ancestor who owned a sailing ship which transported coal to ports all around the British Isles (in which he and his wife lost their lives in 1843 off the Welsh coast in a storm) so I have done a bit of a research on shipping around that period. You might find this interesting or useful ?- <<Tod and Macgregor had engined the first Maid of Galloway in 1836 and the second was to follow in 1844. David Tod – nephew of the original – was appointed engineer of the Maid based at Stranraer and later became a trustee of the Company. Matthew Langlands, the Clyde agent for the Glasgow / Stranraer Company, was a close associate of Tod and Macgregor for the next thirty years. He had an office in St Enoch Square and was also agent for the Glasgow / Liverpool Royal Steam Packet Company. There was also an involvement with the Galloway Steam Navigation Company and orders for two Countess of Galloway boats were completed in 1835 and 1847. The partnership of Tod and Macgregor showed that it was prepared to build and part-own in its association with Duncan McKellar and his Largs / Millport Service. From 1838 it proved that it was also ready to build and own, setting up the Citizens River Steamer Company. Starting with Queen in March 1838, a fleet of four ships was built up on the River Lee, based on Cork.>> this is part of a large web site on Tod & McGregor which I have copied detail from. I am sure someone more local than me could be more specific, but I would imagine if one is contemplating a voyage to Oz shipping might be the simplest initial stage. If your ancestor was a man of means possibly involved in shipping wine then he may have had contacts in the trade who would recommend a route. Actually Australia had an earlier start at growing vines than one might have imagined, I found this out with my own family connections with the name Tyrrell which is one of the bigger Australian wine producers in South 'Australia. Hope this might give a few clues. Good hunting : .Betty (Hereford) ___________________________________________________________ Inbox full of unwanted email? Get leading protection and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html