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Recent Updates

Convict Ships:

• Ships - Morley 1820.  The Morley arrived in Van Diemen's Land 200 years ago on August 29th 1820.  Read The Voyage of the Morley by Rhonda Arthur, transcripts and editing based on the journal of Thomas Reid surgeon, R.N.  (5/08/2020)
• Convict Ship Punishments  - A new page describing punishment and discipline onboard the convict ships into Van Diemen's Land.
• Ships - Emma Eugenia 1851.  Transcript of Surgeon's Journal (transcribed by Colleen Arulappu 26/07/2020). 

  The Emma Eugenia 1851 is not a long journal but has a couple of interesting items.

  In the General Remarks, surgeon John Bower described the arrangements made to the prison deck to separate the women, according to their behaviour, into different categories.  It was experimental and he explained that it did not work due to the need for access to the water closets and hospital. Amongst the medical case notes there was one woman who feigned madness ( Case 3) and another  who had had her infant taken from her in prison and on its return at embarkation it was found to have been physically abused. She refused to allow the child to be again taken from her (Case 4). Several of the children on board had whooping cough.

• Ships - Maria 1818 Transcript of Surgeon's Journal (Transcribed by Rhonda Arthur 3/06/2020).

  Diary of the Maria Female Convict Ship commencing the 7^th March 1818 kept by Thos. Prosser Surgeon & Superintendent

  Transfers to VDL via Sydney: Maria, which started receiving women on board at Deptford on 16th March departed Deal 15th May 1818, 124 female convicts and 22 children arrived in Port Jackson, NSW on 17^th September 1818 (two female convicts died). On 26^th September 1818, 60 female convicts were sent to VDL on the Elizabeth Henrietta. Five other female convicts were later sent to VDL, except Jane Womack, who had previously been in VDL. Their names appear in bold typeface.

  Cannisters of preserved meat, sago and a staggering 84 bottles of red port wine were given to the sick and children. Costiveness and amenorrhoea were prevalent. The Itch appeared and was quickly dispensed with. One woman’s bedding, clothes and blanket were thrown overboard after lice was found on her. Sixty of the youngest female convicts were ‘sent to the Derwent’ shortly after disembarking in Sydney: Eliza McEween was unable to explain how she had pins without heads found in different parts of her body; Ellen Currey was removed from her berth after urinating twice on another woman’s head; and Elizabeth Harrop whose arm was tied to the rigging as punishment for interrupting Prosser at his work. Thefts were continually committed with no possibility of detecting the culprits. Poor Jane Douglass who suffered severe pain after she was accidentally lain on by a messmate during the night, lost her will to live after giving birth to a stillborn son, and both were committed to the deep.

• Ships - Emma Eugenia 1846 Surgeon's Journal (transcribed by Colleen Arulappu 26/05/2020).

  Surgeon John Wilson, on his second voyage aboard the Emma Eugenia, wrote about the several women who had been placed on board who were not in a fit state of health to be transported. He wondered who would send them so far to be buried. He noted the troubles some women had with uterine diseases and the difficulty these caused not only to the patient but other around them. One particularly sad case was that of Mary Collard, described as a very interesting young person who was the victim of the vindictive disposition of a merciless mistress. His General Remarks told of the fright and uproar when one woman mistakenly thought the ship was on fire.

• Ships - Elizabeth & Henry 1848 Surgeon's Journal (transcribed by Colleen Arulappu 21/04/2020). John Smith, surgeon on the Elizabeth and Henry, kept a detailed diary of the illnesses and treatment of his patients. It is an interesting account of how illness affected the women and the struggle to cure them with the limited range of medicines.   Occasionally among the entries he gives a glimpse of life on board; one patient as said to have a greasy hair which inclined to mat while another was said to have worked as a cook for her mess, keeping it up during a long gale even though others were lazy and,  one woman flew into a rage over comments about her during a prayer service. At the Cape of Good Hope he bought oranges, grapes and pears using the women’s money. It is not clear if this was for all the women or limited to those in hospital.  However, he mentioned several of his patients eating the fruit.
• Ships - Angelina 1844 Surgeon's Journal (transcribed by Rhonda Arthur 31/03/2020). 

  JE Ring MD RN was Surgeon Superintendent. The ship put into port at Santa Cruz for water and refreshments. A convict nurse in the ship’s hospital had a violent temper and was dismissed for bad conduct. Three convicts died, one unexpectedly who was found dead by a woman who slept next to her, the second from enteritis but gangrene set in, and another was a young girl who managed to conceal a longstanding complaint and was given a black wash and a blue pill. Two infants also died, and another convict, who was a laughing stock to all, after arrival was admitted to the insane asylum.

Other Updates:

• Petitions - Bridget Hayes per Lord Auckland 1849; Ann Ledger per Australasia 1849 (Courtesy of Rhonda Arthur 25/07/2020).
• Petitions - Isabella (Bell) Rooney per Tasmania 1845. (Courtesy of Colleen Arulappu 11/07/2020)
• Punishments - The Iron Collar (published 1/05/2020).
• Research Seminars - Convict Women at the New Norfolk Asylum - papers by Leonie Mickelborough and Margaret Schmidt (12/01/2020).