Folios 1-10: Sick list of the Portsea Convict Barque - continued: Folio 10: Walter...

Folios 1-10: Sick list of the Portsea Convict Barque - continued:

Folio 10: Walter Norton, aged 21, prisoner; disease or hurt, tooth extracted. Put on sick list, 14 December 1838. Discharged 14 December 1838. Folio 10: James England, aged 24, prisoner; disease or hurt, herpes. Put on sick list, 14 December 1838. Discharged 18 December 1838. Folio 10: William Snell, aged 20, prisoner; disease or hurt, cynanche tonsillaris. Put on sick list, 15 December 1838. Discharged 18 December 1838. Folio 10: William Checkley, aged 26, prisoner; disease or hurt, excoriatio. Put on sick list, 15 December 1838. Folio 10: William Bargerry, aged 19, prisoner; disease or hurt, headache. Put on sick list, 15 December 1838. Discharged 14 December 1838. Folio 10: William Tuck, aged 45, prisoner; disease or hurt, diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 16 December 1838. Discharged 18 December 1838. Folio 10: John Greenhall, aged 21, prisoner; disease or hurt, dyspepsia. Put on sick list, 18 December 1838. Discharged 19 December 1838. Folio 10: John Dunbar, aged 24, prisoner; disease or hurt, diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 18 December 1838. Folio 10: Richard Long, aged 27, Soldier; disease or hurt, syphilis. Put on sick list, 10 July 1838, at sea. Sent to Portsmouth Hospital, 18 July 1838. A Private of the 51st Regiment, he was on the list for a week with chancre and bubo in both groins. The sores on his penis appeared, he said, 3 days after embarkation but he did not complain until he was unable to walk from the swelling of his inguinal glands. Folio 10: Richard Bourke, aged [28], Soldier of the 51st Regiment; disease or hurt, syphilis. Put on sick list, 26 July 1838. Sent to the hospital at Portsmouth, 28 July 1838. The weather was too rough to send him to hospital until 28 July. Folio 11: William Johnston, aged 18, Prisoner; disease or hurt, fracture. Put on sick list, 15 August 1838. Discharged, 10 October 1838. Thrown against the stanchions of the main hatchway by a sudden lurch of the ship, he received a transverse fracture of the left ulna. On 18 September he was well enough to do duties cleaning knives and attending to the poultry.

Folios 12-13: William Wymark, aged 26, Prisoner; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 18 August 1838, at sea. Discharged, 14 September 1838. He had been in the 57th Regiment for 7 years and deserted in 1836 at Gibraltar, going to Spain and from there returning to London as cook on a merchant ship. He was arrested in January 1837 and put in Colchester Jail for 38 days before being marched to Carlisle to be identified at his regimental depot. He remained in the guardroom at Carlisle for 2 months, during which time he began to grow thin. He was then marched from Carlisle to Portsmouth and sent to Gibraltar to be court martialled, receiving a sentence of 7 years transportation. He remained in the [provo] or 'Moore's Castle' [Moorish Castle] for 9 months, where he was badly fed and went to hospital with symptoms of scurvy. He was returned to Portsmouth and again admitted to hospital for scurvy and treated by Mr Williams, who gave him citric acid. Three other prisoners on board, Burbury and Harold of the 68th Regiment and Harrison of the 52nd Regiment, had also been held in prison at Gibraltar between 7 and 11 months. All had suffered scurvy and scorbutic dysentery in prison and were the worst cases of scurvy on board the Portsea. There were two others who came with them from Gibraltar that the surgeon had objected to as being debilitated when they were inspected on the Leviathan hulk.

Folios 14-15: Frederick Shorney, aged 26, Soldier of the 28th Regiment, one of the guard; disease or hurt, pneumonia. Put on sick list, 18 August 1838, at sea. Discharged, 17 September 1838. 'Of stout make and scrophulous appearance', he had been suffering illness for three weeks and attributed it to getting wet and cold in the night watch.

Folios 15-17: William Neville, aged 25, Prisoner; disease or hurt, diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 6 August 1838, at sea. Sent to the hospital at Sydney, 19 December 1838. 'By trade a hairdresser of emaciated appearance and scrophulous habit of body', had suffered diarrhoea for 2 days before complaining. He was discharged well on 9 August but readmitted on 18 August with enlargement of the right testicle and thickening of the spermatic chord. He had suffered frequent attacks of venereal disease 'for which, by his own account he has taken a bushel of Morrison's vegetable pills, to the effect of losing the spongy bones of his nose with large ulcers on the scalp, trunk and extremities'. He had been 'salivated' in St Bartholomew's Hospital under Mr Vincent and was a patient for 15 weeks, after which he again began drinking 'ardent spirits' and lost the use of his limbs. He was readmitted, salivated and after 3 months, discharged well. He received treatment for the whole voyage and was described by the surgeon as 'a drain on the medicine chest' and needed a quantity of opium to produce sleep which 'would kill any other man in the prison'.

Folios 17-18: Mary Daily, aged 32, Wife of Guard; disease or hurt, dysentery. Put on sick list, 28 September 1838. Landed at Hobart Town, 8 December 1838. Ordered a passage but not victualled by Government, she had suffered bowel complaints and debility for some time before embarking and had diarrhoea 2 days after coming on board. In spite of being ordered to take care of her diet she could not be got to eat rice, sago or porridge and preferred soup and meat, 'or in fact any indigestible substance she could get hold of'. There was another woman and child aboard who were not victualled by Government and the surgeon was obliged to provide for them. The ship was obliged to call at Hobart on the way to Sydney to get water and the whole detachment of the 51st were disembarked with their wives. The guard for the remainder of the voyage being made up of men from the 28th Regiment who went out on the Augusta Jessie.

Folios 18-20: George Carter, aged 28, Prisoner; disease or hurt, phrenitis. Put on sick list, 3 October 1838, at sea. Died, 7 October 1838. He had received a number of head injuries before embarking; an accident while pigeon shooting, which left grains of shot embedded in his scalp, a kick from a horse and other injuries from fighting. While in the York hulk he had been in hospital after 'a pugilistic engagement, in which he had his nose broken, a large tumour on the face, and to use his own expression his head almost reduced to a jelly'. He had not felt well for some time and was seldom free from headache.

Folios 20-22: Henry Piddelsden, aged 22, Prisoner; disease or hurt, febris. Put on sick list, 16 September 1838. Discharged, 2 October 1838.

Folios 22-24: John Harrison, aged 28, Prisoner; disease or hurt, scorbutus. Put on sick list, 23 November 1838, at sea. Discharged, 10 December 1838. 'Of short stature and scrophulous appearance', had deserted from Gibraltar into Spain two years previously. He had been in imprisoned for 20 months and had spent 6 of those months in solitary confinement before embarking. During his confinement he lost his health and became scorbutic, emaciated and debilitated. On 7 December the ship called at Hobart Town and took on fresh beef and vegetables, which, with sight of land, 'had a better effect in restoring the health of the sick than all the medicines they have had for the last week'. He was landed on 22 December with the other prisoners.

Folio 24: Note in John Harrison's treatment that current regulation keeps prisoners in Government employment for six months before being assigned, there were 1060 in the barracks.