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Total number of deaths
There died, in all, thirty-six convicts, four Soldiers and seven Seamen; Among whom is included the Captain, Surgeon and two Mates.
Deaths of captain, surgeon and mates
That the deaths of the Captain, Surgeon and Mates may operate as an awful and useful lesson in future on the minds of the officers of transports" is a consummation devoutly to be wished! "
Method adopted to proposing reforms
Having thus detailed the various circumstances and operations connected with the management of the convicts on board the abovementioned transports, as fully as the means of information and the harassing professional duties, in which I have been for some time engaged, will admit, I shall proceed to point out the errors which appear to have existed; And, as time will not permit me to enter into a separate train of observations on the conduct observed in the management of the convicts on board each, I shall review my subject under the following heads: Clothing - Diet-Air-and Medical Assistance :-Applying the reasoning which may arise from the consideration of these subjects to the practice in those vessels, either collectively or separately, as the case may seem to require.
Clothing provided for convicts
Clothing will embrace everything regarding personal cleanliness as well as dress. It must have been obvious to your Excellency, that notwithstanding the great difference of the temperature of the different seasons of the year, of the various climates through which they must pass, the clothing of the convicts, on their arrival in this country, has been hitherto nearly, if not quite the same, namely, blue cloth, or kersey jackets and waistcoats, duck trowsers, check or coarse linen shirts, yarn stockings, and woollen caps.
When a ship quits England in the summer months, from the usual length of the voyage, she arrives here also in the summer, thus nearly or entirely avoiding the winter; but when she leaves England in the winter the reverse of this takes place, having, instead of two summers, the rigor of two winters, in latitude 52 N., and not less than 45 or 46 S., to support, in both of which our own personal feelings have taught us the comfortable and pleasing accommodation of warm clothing.
The clothing of convicts on embarkation
The Convicts, when about to be embarked on the Transports are collected from the various prisons and hulks in which they may have been confined, are stript of their former clothing, washed and dressed in the clothing above enumerated; if it be the winter season, the change must be great, sudden and striking; more especially as we know that they are prohibited wearing such apparel as they or their friends can find the means of furnishing.
Result of system of providing clothing
Experience, the best of guides, has long taught mankind the knowledge, that the human body does not possess the power of instantaneously adapting itself to very great and sudden transitions, nor of supporting their effects with impunity. With this fact in view, it will be readily admitted that the great and sudden change of dress, to which convicts are thus subjected, must, in a winter's passage, be one source of disease. The common and invariable effects of this change are colds, pneumonic complaints, and rheumatism, which, together with the means requisite to subdue these complaints, are highly calculated for the production of debility the predisponents of scurvy, fever and dysentery.
Want of warm clothing
A predisposing cause to scurvy on the Three Bees
That the want of warm clothing had a very considerable share in the production of the inveterate degree of scurvy, under which the convicts in the Three Bees laboured, will require but little proof. They were on board the ship from the 2nd October to the 7th December, lying in the ports of Ireland and England, stript of their warm clothing generally consisting of coarse cloth, or frieze coats, waistcoats, breeches or trowsers, and not uncommonly with the addition of a frieze great coat, dressed in the light clothing mentioned above with trowsers of a thin coarse kind of brown or unbleached linen, known in Ireland by the name of "Harn" which is much thinner and less calculated to resist cold and severity of weather than even the Dutch trowsers of the English convicts. In such a dress, having undergone such a change, exposed to the rigor of two winters, incapable from a variety of causes, too obvious to require mentioning, of taking exercise, with but a single blanket the only covering on their beds at night, to the eye of common sense, not to say to that of medical acumen, the probable effects must exhibit too strong a figure to be easily doubted or mistaken.
For a summer voyage no dress can be more suitable than the present for they can be as lightly clothed as they please by disencumbering themselves under the pressure of heat of their jackets and waistcoats, when the shirts and trowsers will be found quite pleasant and amply sufficient.
Change of clothing proposed for the winter voyage
Far, very far, from arrogantly wishing to propose useless innovations in a system already as nearly perfect as possible, yet with the importance of the subject pressing on my mind, and urged too by a strong sense of duty, I shall take the liberty most respectfully to submit to Your Excellency's consideration the propriety of suggesting and recommending to his Majesty's Government the following trifling change and addition in the present clothing for the winter voyage.
That the duck or yarn trowsers be exchanged for cloth ones, that flannel waistcoats and drawers be supplied; And that an additional blanket be issued to each person. This change and addition of the trowsers, flannel waistcoats and drawers, at no very great expense, would affect the means of resisting cold during the day; and the blanket would contribute warmth in the night and supersede that baneful custom, which is but too common of sleeping in their clothes, a practice which cannot be too strongly deprecated, since by confining the effluvia arising from the human body constantly about it, thus rendering it more virulent, it tends directly to supply the most effectual means of generating and diffusing contagion.
Probable objections to woollen clothing
In objection to this change and addition of dress, it might perhaps be urged that as flannel or woollen cloths is in most circumstances generally less cleanly than linen, and as woollen clothes possess in a high degree the property of imbibing and retaining the principles of contagion, the benefits, derived from their power in counteracting the effects of cold, and affording warmth, would be inadequate to the risque of favouring the diffusion of contagion. The answer to this objection leads me to the second division of this head, Personal Cleanliness.
Advantages of linen and woollen clothing
Altho' the strength of this argument must in some degree be admitted, yet it cannot be denied but that either cotton or linen, if worn on the person till it become filthy, will retain fomites, and communicate contagion as certainly as woollen. But fortunately we possess, even on board ship, the means of preventing the generation and diffusion of contagion with as much certainty as any place else. To effect this object, all that is necessary is cleanliness and ventilation.
Neglect of personal cleanliness of convicts on the General Hewitt
In the detail of the transactions respecting the management of the convicts on board the General Hewitt, I am sorry to be obliged to observe that, however well they commenced by appointing proper days for attending to the personal cleanliness of the convicts, and by insisting on their being shaved and clean in order to attend Divine Service on the quarter deck every Sunday in the early part of the voyage they did not consider these circumstances of importance enough to merit being steadily carried into effect, since, long ere the termination of the voyage, they suffered these most useful and salutary regulations to sink into neglect; so that we find the convicts becoming exceeding filthy.
Whatever good excuse might be urged for not supplying the prisoners with a certain portion of fresh water for the purpose of washing their linen at sea, surely none can be offered why it was withheld in harbour. It would perhaps be equally difficult to assign any solid reason, in a passage of less than six months for putting them on a allowance of three pints of water per man per diem.
Improper issue of soap
The soap, I am concerned to find, was not issued to them in the proportion in which it should have been, as it appears from the calculation of twelve ounces to each mess of six men per month that not more than 150 lbs. was issued during the passage. On the subject of the practices with regard to soap, I shall have occasion to animadvert below.
Want of personal cleanliness of the convicts on the Three Bees
It is also to be regretted that sufficient attention was not paid to the personal cleanliness of the convicts on board the Three Bees, as those who were landed ill of scurvy before their clothing was changed, were extremely dirty both in person and dress. On enquiry into the cause of this, I was told that only one man could have access to the head at a time, which was the place appointed for them to wash themselves; and that the Soldiers composing the guard threw as many difficulties in their way on these occasions as possible; so that in the midst of the ocean they could not, for want of a little common management obtain even salt water enough to wash themselves once a week.
Want of personal cleanliness of the convicts on the Surrey
The convicts in the Surry did not, from quitting England in February, suffer so much from the want of warm clothing as those of the Three Bees; but from the wretchedly dirty and squalid appearance of their persons and dress, there was much reason to suppose that they had been as great, if not greater strangers to wholesome ablution as those of either the General Hewit or Three Bees.
Improper issue of soap by the master of the Surrey
An occurrence, demonstrative of the highly improper practice carried on by the Masters of some of the transports with regard to the articles of comfort, etc., fell within my own immediate observation, and which I cannot pass over in silence. When the Convicts were landed from the Surry in order that the ship might be fumigated, and as it was deemed proper to wash the prisoners' persons as frequently as possible previous to the quarantine restrictions being removed, a little soap was requested from the Purser or Steward for this purpose. "There was none, it was all expended," was the reply. A few days after it was discovered that a quantity of soap was inserted in the Invoice of goods they had for sale. In consequence of which, it was suggested that an enquiry was likely to be instituted concerning the proper expenditure of the article of comfort, etc., put on board for the use of the convicts on the passage. This produced the desired effect, and five boxes of soap were sent to the General Hospital as remains of unexpended stores. This fact speaks for itself.
Value of cleanliness in the prevention of disease
Having thus shewn that the personal cleanliness of the convicts on board those transports did not obtain the degree of attention corresponding to the importance of the subject, I shall reserve the suggestions I mean to throw out on this part of the case for the conclusion of this paper. In the meantime, I must beg leave to observe, that experience has shewn, that the affusion of cold water over the body is a powerful means of preventing the generation of contagion by washing off the effluvia from the body, and enabling it to resist cold and even contagion itself when present. I could therefore recommend that as many as possible should every morning undergo the cold affusion; but if it could not be complied with every morning, then it should alternate with the days of cleaning and shaving, I that they might every day have something to do that would require some exertion of body and afford some amusement to the mind.
Dietary scale sufficient as ordered by government
Diet, including food and drink, is the next object of enquiry, according to the plan proposed; and on this part of our subject, Government having already made arrangements so well calculated for the health and comfort of the convicts, that there is little room for observation. The allowance of food, I am warranted in asserting from practical observation, is quite sufficient provided it be duly served out. That this has not always been the case is to be lamented. For altho' it is granted, that it is amply sufficient, yet it does not follow that it will admit of any subduction. On the contrary I am convinced, as well from information as observation, that no subduction whatever can take place without producing visible effects by debilitating the body and disposing it for disease.
Purchase of rations by masters of transports
The practice followed in the navy
It has been stated above from unquestionable authority that the Masters of the several transports have purchased the convicts' ration of Salt Beef on their passage through the tropics; And that one at least paid them for it in a manner disgraceful to himself and injurious to them. This practice is probably in imitation of a similar one that sometimes takes place in the Navy and the Company's Service, wherein the Salt meat ration in warm climates, by desire of the people, is retained in the Purser's hands, for which they are paid According to the established rules of the service, or they receive flour, suet and plumbs in return. To this practice in either the Navy or Company's service there can be no possible objection, as the ration, bearing a proportion to that of the convicts, is as six to four, will admit of such subduction or exchange.
Evils of the practice amongst masters of transports
The exchange in either case would be serviceable; but the subduction would, we know, in the one be injurious, in the other it might perhaps be harmless; and therefore Government might give instructions for the exchange of Salt Beef for flour, suet and plumbs between the tropics, according to the usage of the Navy. But the circumstance, of the Master of the transports purchasing any part of their ration, is deserving of the most serious reprehension. It is pregnant with danger, as it affords them, when so disposed, every facility for peculation and for applying certain articles of the convicts' provisions and comforts to their private use or emolument. A transaction of this kind seems to have occurred not long since, altho' it failed to be proved. The Steward of the General Hewitt gave an information that the Captain withheld a quantity of the butter, put on board as part of the convicts' ration; but when called upon to prove the fact, he declared that he had served out the usual proportion of sugar in lieu of butter, according to the rules of the Navy. Butter appears to be the only thing in the ration table that is unfit to form an article of diet in a voyage through the tropics. It is an expensive article, and, as it sells here, it is more the subject of peculation than perhaps any other put on board for the convicts' use. Molasses might I conceive be substituted with advantage to Government as well as to the Convicts.
The allowance of wine on the voyage
With regard to the allowance of two gallons of wine for each man during the voyage, it appears, from the usual mode of administering it, to be somewhat difficult to define the intention with which it is given, or the utility likely to be derived from it; Half a pint is commonly served out, or said to be so every Sunday, or some other day in the week. Of what benefit is this I know not. Would it not be much better to reserve it for the purpose of serving out half the quantity during the prevalence of cold and bad weather?
Proposed increase issue of wine
If I might presume to suggest the result of my reasoning on this subject, I should beg leave most respectfully to offer for your Excellency's consideration the fitness of recommending to his Majesty's Government to increase the quantity of wine to six gallons, which would allow an issue of one fourth of a pint to each person daily. This quantity would be amply sufficient and would be attended with the most beneficial consequences, as it would, by assisting to maintain the vigour of the system, counteract debility arising from bad weather, confinement below, and despondency. It ought to be diluted with an equal quantity of water, to which might be added a small portion of lime juice and sugar, and served out, and drunk at the tub by each individual, that was able to come up on deck. In this manner of preparing and issuing it, it would furnish an article highly antiscorbutic; and as each convict would then know the quantity he was daily entitled to, it would prevent the shameless practices which have not unfrequently taken place with regard to this article.
Deficiencies in issue of wine on the transports General Hewitt and Surrey
Two instances of which are deducible from the remark made on the issue of this article in the General Hewitt and Surry. In the former, it was stated there was a deficiency in the issue of 300 gallons. In the latter, it is proved by the ship's journal that there is a deficiency of 240 7/16 gallons. Each issue of wine is regularly recorded in the ship's Journal, commencing on the 30th January and terminating on the first of May, during which period there was about 169 9/16 gallons issued, which being subtracted from 400 Gallons, the quantity put on board being two gallons for each man, there remains the above deficiency of 240 7/16 gallons. This fact is fully and fairly recorded in the ship's journal without a single attempt at explanation.
The problem of fresh air and ventilation
An object of still greater importance, than any of those already touched on, is air, the great pabulum of life, without which existence can scarcely be maintained for a minute. And from ignorance or inattention in regulating its influence in the management of the convicts on the passage, the ill state of health and great mortality are chiefly to be attributed.
Effects of confinement
That the bodies of men, when closely confined in considerable numbers, possess a power of generating a most subtle poison, the nature of which is cognizable, but in its effects, not only injurious and deleterious to the bodies of those by whom it is generated, but spreading baneful influence far and wide among all, who come within the sphere of its action, is fully evinced by the many lamentable instances on record.
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