Folios 26 ? 30: Surgeon?s general remarks. In May 1843 the surgeon was appointed...

ADM 101/44/8/4

1843

Folios 26 – 30: Surgeon’s general remarks. In May 1843 the surgeon was appointed to the convict ship Mandarin but it’s name was changed to Lord Petre before he joined on 7 June 1843. On 17 June, the guard joined, two officers, three non-commissioned officers and 47 men, 6 women and 8 children. On 20 June the surgeon examined 48 prisoners on the Thames hulk at Deptford. All were healthy, with the exception of one [John Lee] but the surgeon was persuaded to take him on assurance there was no opthalmia on the hulk and his eye had been injured while he was working that morning. The surgeon regrets giving in and taking him for the suffering it later caused many of the prisoners. The ship was towed to Woolwich by a steamer and on 21 June the surgeon selected 95 prisoners from the Warrior hulk, rejecting 6 or 7, and immediately afterwards another 95 from the Justitia, all of whom were received on board that afternoon. They were issued bedding and the surgeon addressed them on the rules and the necessity for behaving properly. The 238 convicts were divided into two divisions and then again into sub-divisions. They were mustered by sub-divisions every morning to wash and be inspected between 4:30am and 7am, even in cold and sleety weather. In warm weather every man bathed naked. After washing the lower decks were cleaned, without water, and at 8 they breakfasted. The sand supplied for cleaning the decks was mostly mud and so the decks had to be scraped clean. At 9:30 the prisoners attended school in three divisions, those who could read and write in one, those who could read only in another and the third who could do neither. Books were supplied by the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge and the Sunday School Union. They had dinner at 12 and returned to school until 3pm. They had supper at 4pm and then all were allowed recreation on deck until sunset. Twenty four men were appointed to wash the dirty clothes on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays and Saturdays they were shaved and on Sundays and Thursdays there was an extra muster and the prisoners were obliged to have clean shirts and send their dirty ones below for washing. Flannel shirts were issued in the cold weather, to be worn outside the calico ones because they were supplied with only one each. The surgeon recommends that two should be supplied for each prisoner. A cover was arranged for the hatchways, using light spars and sails, allowing air to circulate but keeping water out in rainy weather and also supplying shelter for 40 or 50 men on deck. The surgeon suggests a clause be inserted in the charter party for convict vessels compelling the owners to make provision for such an arrangement. He also suggests that spare clothing be supplied in case of loss. When a convict lost his shirt by it blowing off the rigging while drying, the surgeon was compelled to keep the man below decks for two days a week while his only other shirt was being washed and dried. The cook and his mates, and others who had extra duties, wore out their shoes and had to go without in the cold hail and sleet. There were few punishments and usually the most severe was replacing the irons that they came on board with for a few days. Solitary confinement or stopping provisions were rarely used. The provisions were generally good but for a time in the warm weather the oatmeal skilly was ‘repugnant to both the taste and stomachs of not a few’. The beef and pork both boiled badly, an 8lb piece often being reduced to 4lb in the coppers. The nourishment taken daily by the prisoners became considerably reduced and the surgeon feared for their health and directed the master to give an extra two ounces of beef to each of the convicts between 2 August and 5 September. Lime juice was commenced with the salt rations but the surgeon intends making comments on its prophylactic properties in a separate letter. The number of guard and prisoners embarked was 285, on the voyage 4 children were born and of these 289 total, 89 names appear on the sick list, mostly with trifling diseases. The opthalmia appeared immediately the prisoners embarked which gave the surgeon the opportunity to get distilled water, belladonna and other remedies. Both the first two fatal cases were far advanced in their diseases when they came on board but the marasmus of the third, Thomas Thomas, was much less apparent. Possible there was a scorbutic taint originating in his abstaining from meat. On 22 July 1843, Thomas Barrows, the boatswain, received an injury which turned out to be a rupture through the left inguinal canal. Since there were no other trusses on board the surgeon had to issue him one of those supplied by the government. Signed David Deas, Surgeon, RN, late superintendent Lord Petre convict ship,Sydney New South Wales, 17 November 1843.

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