No. 41 February 23, 1878

Amongst the early experiences colonists had to endure of visitors from the convict colonies, I now give the closing scenes of two of the shipments of transports, which will add materially to the dark side of the history of the opening days of this colony, which in so many other respects were so bright and pleasing.

On the 17th of April, 1850, the Lady Dennison was engaged by our Government to convey ten long-sentenced prisoners to Tasmania under the charge of three constables. Sixteen passengers were also on board. It was afterwards reported that amongst the passengers were some confederates of the convicts on board. Of this unfortunate ship no tidings have ever been heard. It is unknown whether she went down with all hands or was taken by the prisoners ; and, if so, as a matter of course, Captain Hammond, her commander, his crew, constables, and passengers were all killed, excepting any who might have assisted or joined the prisoners.

Written information was received by the Government shortly after the discovery of gold in Victoria that one or more of the escaped prisoners had been seen on the Victorian diggings, but no confirmation of such a statement has been made public. [See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Denison]

To follow the brief and sad account of the missing Lady Dennison, I may with propriety give the description of the narrow escape the captain of the brig Punch, his passengers, and crew experienced on a voyage shortly afterwards from Port Adelaide to Hobart Town. The brig had been taken up and chartered by our Government to convey 12 long-sentenced prisoners, to expiate their breaches of the law by penal servitude in Tasmania, or Van Dieman's Land as it was then called. At this time, and for a short period afterwards, our prisoners were sent to one of the convict colonies, either to Sydney or Tasmania. In addition to 12 prisoners, the captain accommodated two cabin passengers. I must say three, for a female, the wife of one of the prisoners, was allowed to take a cabin passage, and brought on board a considerable quantity of luggage, also four steerage passengers. What took place on board I have learned from a gentleman, one of the cabin passengers, who, shortly after he made the trip, committed the occurrences to paper, and has obligingly allowed me to use the same.

The brig had amongst her prison passengers one at least who had been sentenced to a long term of imprisonment under a first conviction, and so had not joined ours from a convict colony. As I know the respectability of his connections, I do not publish his name, as no good purpose has to be served thereby ; and as I suppose he may have obtained his liberty long before this account appears in print, I trust his bitter experience of the consequences of wrong-doing will have produced a favorable change in him. I may mention that on my passage from England he was as a youth engaged on board the ship in which I and my family made the passage as a cuddy servant.

One of the officers of the ship informed me he had been put on board in that capacity by an uncle, for misconduct. I was not favorably impressed by his behavior whilst on board. After landing, he was successful in getting into a most respectable situation, but there so misconducted himself as to merit the severe sentence which was passed on him. I now make use of my friend's notes : —

"On the day the brig Punch was advertised to sail for Hobart Town I found myself under the necessity of visiting Tasmania without delay. To take advantage of the Punch, I only had time to make hurried business arrangements and to pack up a carpet-bag. Having thus prepared I started in one of the Port passenger-carts. In those days the passage between Adelaide and the Port was as uncomfortable as an enemy might wish it to be. When the full number the driver chose to jam in were seated we started. The road was as full of holes as it was possible to be, so that when one wheel was out the other would be in ; or it might be that both would make a plunge into a quaghole at the same time, when there would be a unanimous grunt from the passengers, this being the only variety experienced in the seven miles' ride, being a sort of introduction to an anticipated passage in a small brig jumping about in a short sea.

" After this miserable ride, on arriving at the bank of the Port Creek I found the brig already in the stream ready for a start, and was put on board by a Port boatman. On stepping on deck the first thing which attracted my attention and surprised me was to perceive two armed sentries pacing the deck. On entering the captain's cabin I enquired of him the cause of the sentries being on board, and he, as if it was a matter of no consequence, informed me he had a number of prisoners between decks, but that if I wished for a passage with him I could have half a cabin with a gentleman passenger already on board.

" I felt rather dashed by the position in which I found myself, but as my business was most pressing I took my passage with a sort of desperation and feeling prepared to defy and ordinary discomforts, but I certainly little expected what did occur.

" I had arrived on board in an excited state from the hurry I had been put to in the short notice I had, and did not feel in my usual spirits, perhaps in part occasioned by this being my first trip on shipboard since my voyage from England, and with a very lively recollection of a narrow escape from wreck on that occasion, causing me to feel an undefined dread of a coming calamity; but I certainly did not anticipate such a fright as we experienced, before we arrived at our destination, which was nothing less than an attempt of the prisoners to take the brig, and for which well laid plans had been made before we left the port of departure, which to the captain, crew, and passengers would have resulted in violent death in the contest, or in walking the plank if the ruffians' designs had succeeded ; but in their attempt to recover freedom they were most providentially frustrated.

" Our captain was a man over six feet in stature and stout in proportion, with a fist and voice to create dread whenever called into play, so that when the first intimation of the prisoners' designs was revealed to us, and arms put in hands, our courage and confidence in our leader was aroused. Before any alarm was given, I had observed in the captain's cabin a goodly supply of weapons in good order. Our captain had the look of a jolly Irishman, who rather had a taste for a scrimmage. We were soon making good way down the Gulf having been towed to the Lightship.

" I was informed that amongst the prisoners were several lifers, as they were called, and the remainder transports for seven or fourteen years, and some returned runaway prisoners from the convict colonies, and many desperate characters were amongst them. On receiving this anything but cheering information, and seeing only three guards in charge of them, the nervous state of feeling which I have described as mine at starting, was not diminished, and I heartily wished myself on shore again, but this I knew to be an impossibility, as no boat would be allowed to leave a chartered convict ship."

I may mention here, to account for so many criminals being sent away at one time, that runaways from the neighboring colonies were retained in gaol until after a session when a sufficient number of sentenced men could be added to make up a number to justify our Government in chartering a suitable vessel. To some readers it may be necessary to repeat that for some years after the founding of this colony, the Governments of New South Wales and Tasmania still received our sentenced prisoners, and justly so, as we had been supplied with plenty of runaways and expirees from those colonies. Now we have to provide for our own criminals, and laws have been passed by our Legislature to forbid the landing of persons of that class on our shores, either from the mother country or from the neighboring colonies.

" I now return to describe our passage. After leaving Port Adelaide everything seemed to go on favorably. The wind was propitious, and after turning in I passed a quiet and comfortable night. On passing Kangaroo Island we encountered a much rougher sea. Our brig was a smart craft, and our captain, as he afterwards explained, having the unknown fate of the Lady Dennison present in his mind (which was the convict ship previously dispatched from South Australia), had under the conditions of his charter made every suitable arrangement to keep secure his prison passengers, and he was resolved, if possible, to avoid the supposed fate of the captain and crew of that lost ship. The 'tween-decks were fitted up in a substantial manner, the chain cable so arranged that refractory prisoners could be made fast to it by shackles, and his cabin well furnished with loaded firearms, cut-lasses, &c. The cook was an old servant of the captain's, and had made many trips with him.

" When we were well at sea he came to the master, with an appearance of having something serious to say. On his being asked 'Well, cook, what do you want?' he replied, ' Captain, I don't like your lady passenger, Mrs. B—, the wife of one of the prisoners. She has a good deal of luggage in her cabin, and I think there is something suspicious about it. I noticed one of her trunks as being very heavy, and putting this and that together, I feel I must tell you what I have on my mind. I have an engagement with a young woman ashore in Adelaide to marry her, and she was quite upset when I parted with her. I told her we were only bound on a short trip, but she kept on crying, and at last said, 'You will never come back, nor will the brig ever reach Hobart Town, as I have overheard a conversation between the passenger (Mrs. B—, whose service she had just left), and one of her friends to that effect.'

" On receiving this vague tale the captain became more than ever on his guard, and on hearing on a subsequent night an unusual noise among the prisoners he went, accompanied with the guards and part of the crew, all armed, and shackled the worst of the men to the chain cable. The prisoners had the appearance of men under the influence of drink, which must have been smuggled to them. To explain how this might have been done, I must state that an arrangement had been carried out soon after starting of bringing three or four of the prisoners on deck for air and exercise, and on these occasions the prisoner B— had been granted the privilege by the guards and the good-natured captain to hold a few minutes' conversation with his wife in her cabin. Before the captain went below after hearing the noise Mrs. B— begged of him in an excited manner not to do so, but he did not feel inclined to follow her advice, and, after securing some of the prisoners, turned in for the night, but like a miller, who is said to sleep with one eye open, he was alive to the slightest noise. When he was ruffled he was a sort of demon, but when things were going on smoothly he was quite amiable and anxious to make all hands happy.

" We had not long retired again to rest, and before midnight the sea had become very rough, and the brig labored heavily, but above the noise of the elements a cry of one of the guards was heard. The crew and myself, and the other cabin passenger had been supplied with arms, and told to keep ourselves in readiness, and we were all soon on deck. We found the guards doing their best to beat the prisoners back from escaping up the main hatch, which was half open. Our captain was at the opening roaring with such vehemence and language as I never heard before that he would cleave in two any man who dared to come within his reach. After a short struggle, the revolting prisoners were driven back, and every man chained to the cable, with the threat from the captain that on any fresh attempt every blessed man should go over the side fast to the cable.

" On the following morning the captain, accompanied by the cook, visited Mrs. B— in her cabin, and addressed her in these words. He was very polite in his rough way : 'Mrs. B—, I am sorry to intrude on you so abruptly and early in the day. My only excuse is my anxiety for the safety of my ship and passengers.' 'Captain, I do not understand you. What can I do to secure the safety of your ship ; what can you mean ?' 'Well, madam, it is no use mincing matters. I will be plain, and not keep you in further suspense. I have sufficient grounds to know that there is a conspiracy between you and your husband and the other prisoners to take the ship.'

" On hearing this Mrs. B— became as white as death, and quickly exclaimed, ' It is false, it is a lie ! I know nothing of such a conspiracy; it is cruel to bring such a charge against me— an unfortunate woman,' and with a woman's last resource she burst into tears. The answer she got was ' Madam, I must be firm; and so I have at once to demand of you the keys of your trunks.'

" At this she became abusive and refused to comply, but when she was told the cook would be ordered to break them open, she produced the keys. On the heavy suspected trunk being opened, pistols ready loaded, with cutlasses, &c, were found, also sundry charts and other requisites for a voyage. During this exposure the woman, dejected, with her head depressed with shame and fear, kept silence. The skipper ordered the confiscated arms &c, to be placed in the store, and addressed the involved woman thus — ' Madam, you see our information was correct as to what was intended to be carried out. I have hitherto granted you every indulgence in my power. Now it becomes my duty to order you to keep close to your cabin for the remainder of the passage, and you will not hold any communication with your husband in the ship. I shall take care of your personal comforts and see that your wants are all attended to ; but you must not attempt to leave your cabin, or to hold any secret communication with any person on board.'

" On this the captain went on deck, and called the passengers and crew to hear him. He ordered us to keep our arms in readiness, and to be ready to attend promptly to any call, night or day, and he added one of the crew to the guards. 'There must be one universal opinion that the South Australian Government were highly to be blamed in sending so many prisoners with only three policemen as guards, especially as before we left the opinion had become general that some thing fatal had happened on board the Lady Dennison, which had been dispatched such a short time before us with prisoners, and of her no tidings had been heard.

" The weather during the remainder of the passage still continued rough, dark, and foggy. The captain became quite anxious, as he supposed he was in the neighborhood of the dangerous rocks called the Sow and Pigs, but we fortunately passed without sighting them, and made the mouth of the River Derwent, and with a fair wind sailed up that beautiful river, and soon obtained a pilot. On his coming on board his first question to our captain was if any tidings had been heard of the Lady Dennison. On our nearing the wharf the usual officials came on board. The prisoners were ordered on deck, and were ranged, and their names called over. Before they were ordered over the side, where a file of soldiers were ready with fixed bayonets to receive and guard them, the privileged prisoner had the face to request to speak to our captain, and said — '' Captain, I wish to ask you if you will accept a small token from me as a memento of this voyage? Amongst my wife's luggage there is a trunk which I wish you to accept with its contents. In it you will find charts and other articles which we intended to use if an opportunity had occurred. It is useless to deny that it was our intention to have seized the ship, and to have compelled part of the crew to steer for California; but we were foiled in our purpose, and we must now submit as patiently as we can to our destiny.'

" The captain thanked him for his candid confession, but informed him that the present he offered had been in his safe-keeping some days, and would be handed over to the South Australian Government. And then the miserable fellow was marched off in a chained gang under a strong escort, the wretched wife from the side of the brig witnessing with floods of tears her husband's departure. It was reported that she afterwards entered into a small way of business, and after a certain time applied for her husband, and obtained him as an assigned servant under the convict regulations." (To be continued.)