Folios 30-34: Surgeon's general remarks. The guard on the Bardaster was 30 men and...

Folios 30-34: Surgeon's general remarks. The guard on the Bardaster was 30 men and 2 commissioned officers of the 28th Regiment, accompanied by an unusually high number of women and children; 9 women and 9 children, mostly under 16 months of age. All appeared healthy but two of the guard and one child. The evening of their embarkation, one of the soldiers became ill with spasmodic cholera, three days later one of his attendants became ill. On 25 August they sailed from Deptford to Portsmouth to pick up prisoners. On the way Alfred Tibbitt became ill and the surgeon was surprised to find his face covered with pimples, although he had been vaccinated and had not been in any way exposed to contagion. He was sent ashore at Portsmouth and all the seamen's sleeping places whitewashed with chloride of lime. Tibbitt returned to the ship and reported on his illness. On 1 September the surgeon inspected prisoners on the hulks Leviathan and York and 240 male prisoners were embarked the same day. They appeared healthy but 4 or 5 were found to have disease of the lungs. They were prevented from sailing until 16 September by a south westerly gale and cleared the channel on 23 September after some unfavourable weather. By this time variola was established on board. The second case, John Bennett, showed no signs of variola initially. He had not been vaccinated and was removed to the forecastle and Tibbitt assigned to care for him. The weather was rough and almost all the prisoners sea sick, so it was difficult to ascertain who was susceptible of small pox. The extreme irritation from nausea may have prevented the vaccine lymph from producing vesicles. On 21 [September] a prisoner boy, George Stanbrooke, was carried into the hospital with what became a very severe case of confluent small pox, and on the same day, another prisoner with a very mild case. There were then three patients, two with confluent small pox and one with modified. The sick were seen in the prisons and the hospital treated as a 'pest ward'. There were no further cases until a modified case appeared on 4 October, John Holloway, and on the next day a ship's boy who had been inoculated, Bridgewater, complained with fever much more severe than in any of the cases who had been vaccinated. On 7 October another modified small pox appeared, Henry Symonds, and on 8 October, Richard Clarke, a child whose mother said he had been inoculated but from the appearance of the marks on his arms and from its being performed by the regimental medical officer it must have been cow pox. This case was more like a mild case of distinct small pox than the others. On the 10 October another infant [John Kennedy?] whom the surgeon had unsuccessfully vaccinated, was ill with a severe confluent disease which proved fatal. Another infant vaccinated at the same time survived although mild variola attacked before the vesicle had dried. On the same day William Newall became ill with confluent small pox and died, he had also been unsuccessfully vaccinated. On 15 October, the cuddy steward, a 'man of colour', complained. He had also been vaccinated. Since he objected to going into the hospital he was placed in the lee quarter boat. His was the last case and is not recorded since there was nothing unusual in it. The three fatal cases of small pox were all confluent and two of them had been unsuccessfully vaccinated. None of the vaccinated cases were successful until Sergeant Marshall's child and vaccinations with lymph from this case were unsuccessful in four cases. The surgeon attributes this to 'extreme cuticular irritations caused by the heat', most of the prisoners suffered prickly heat. The progress of the disease might have been cut short if the weather in October not continued squally, preventing proper ventilation. In the severe and confluent cases 'it is impossible to convey by writing any notion of the loathsome mass of suppuration and putrescency which the patients become'. The surgeon discusses the treatment of confluent cases and its ineffectiveness, and compares the primary and secondary fevers. He is satisfied that George Stanbrooke's destruction of the pimples on his face while delirious 'bettered his state and assisted in relieving his head', and intends to try the effect of a solution of nitrate of silver on the eruptions if he should be placed in similar circumstances. Chloride of lime was useful in combating the smell and as a gargle. The modified disease was mild and needed very little attention, with only two cases confined to bed and one of those from fright. Bridgewater's was the only case requiring active treatment. The worst consequence of the modified disease being that it can lead to confluent small pox, as the disease on board can clearly be traced to Tibbitt. At one time there was not room in the hospital for all the cases, so the modified cases were sent to deck to the lee side of the booms, where they were exposed to any breeze that was blowing. The surgeon comments that vaccination can hardly have faced a more severe trial than in a ship with more than 300 people on board in warm latitudes. But the number who said they had been vaccinated cannot be relied upon since they may not distinguish between inoculation and vaccination. There were few other diseases but a large proportion of consumptives and one serious apoplexy which was not recorded but proved fatal. Signed Joseph Street Surgeon RN, Bardaster Convict Ship, Hobart Town 16 January 1836