Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Navy Office, Transport Department, 20th April 1820.

A List of Stores shipped on

board the Morley Con

vict Ship, Robert Brown

Master, for the use of 120 female convicts, passengers, and 50 children, during their voyage to New South Wales, or Van Diemen's Land, and of clothing for the use of the convicts upon their arrival at the colony.

Articles of Comfort for Use during the Voyage.

Mustard, 157 lbs.: soap, 785: combs, large and small, of each 22: needles, 1,200: scissors, 12 pairs: moist sugar, 2,072 lbs.: souchong, 452: preserved meats, 439 and 10 ounces: lemon juice, 252 gallons: sugar to mix with it, 1,792 lbs.: white thread, 12: coloured thread, 12: towels, 240.

Articles in case of Sickness.

Tea, 31 lbs. sugar, 157: chocolate 9: sago, 18: Scotch barley, 314: ginger, : allspice, 6: black pepper, 3: red port wine, 94 bottles.

:

Hospital Furniture.

Calico bed-gowns, 8: petticoats, 8: cotton hose, 15 pairs linen pocket-handkerchiefs, 15: night-caps, 15: towels, 15: linen sheets, 12 pairs: pillow-cases, 24: pewter pans and urinals, of each 2:, and bucket, of each 2 spitting-pots, 2: tin saucepans, 2: teakettles, 2 ditto to serve as teapots, 21: knives and forks, 15 of each: bathing tub, I water purifier, 1: childbed linen, 12 sets: charcoal, 20 bushels: water pails, 3 airing stove, 1: half pint tin japanned

mugs, 120: swing stove, 1: spare beds, 12: kegs* (three gallons), 27.

Clothing for the Use of the Convicts upon their Arrival.

Brown serge jackets, 120: petticoats, 120: linen shifts, 240: linen caps, 120: stockings, 120 pairs: shoes, 120 pairs: neck-handkerchiefs, 120: beds complete, 170: cots, 4: hammocks slung, 6.

Clothing for 17 Male Children.

Blue kersey jackets, 17: waistcoats, 17: raven duck trowsers, 17 pairs: shirts, 51: stockings, 34 pairs: woollen caps, 17: neck-handkerchiefs, 17: shoes, 17 pairs.

Clothing for 33 Female Children.

Brown serge jackets, 33: petticoats, 33: linen shifts, 66: linen caps, 33: stockings, 33 pairs: shoes, 33: neck-handkerchiefs, 33.

Books.

New Testaments, 33: prayer books, 46: psalters, 46: Bibles, 12: manuals of instruction and devotion for the use of the prisoners, 11.

The above ample and truly liberal supply of provi sions and extra articles for the use of the convicts is well worthy of notice, as it is fully equal to every want to which they are liable; and the minute particulars

* It has been hitherto the custom to withhold these from the female convict ships.

There ought to be at least one Bible for each mess.

C

are attended to with a concern highly laudable to the directors of this supply. Indeed, many persons emigrating to distant countries would consider themselves exceedingly at ease were they individually as well circumstanced, though driven by the pressure or dread of domestic distress to seek relief far from their early homes, with an honest name, and unreproving conscience, yet supplied with accommodations infinitely short of those thought necessary in providing for the transmission of the idle, dissolute and criminal, branded with infamy and crime for which they are driven from society.

The land forces sent to guard the convicts have a daily allowance of spirits, but are not so well provided for as the prisoners in respect of several extra articles served to the prisoners, though the use of spirits on the voyage (an allowance certainly contributing to no good purpose whatever, and productive of very serious bad consequences, particularly as the quantity issued is too great by one half, allowing even of so unnecessary an indulgence) is happily not suffered to the convicts. The wives of soldiers also, and their children, have a proportionate ration of this baneful liquid, which over their weaker minds may be said to exert a most dangerous influence, injurious to their health and morals, and subversive of good order.

Although the matter be not immediately, it is remotely and intimately connected with the subject of transportation. I shall therefore place it here, to show how generously convicts fare comparatively with others. At the same time I am anxious that nothing advanced in this comparison may prove injurious to the unfor

tunate exile, who is lying at the mercy of that power which directs his removal to a new world, and an almost new state of existence, nor withdraw from him a tittle of that bountiful support he now enjoys.

"Rules to be observed by Masters and Commanders of His Majesty's hired Transports, in victualling Land Forces.

"Six Soldiers', or four Seamen's Allowance for every Day in the Week.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

"The above are to be served out by full weights and measures.

"When flour, suet, and raisins are put on board, they are to be served in equal proportion with beef, viz. one half in beef, the other in flour, suet, and raisins, on each beef day.

"Half a pound of rice is equal to a pint of oatmeal; half a pound of sugar is equal to half a pound of butter, and a pint of rice is equal to a pound of cheese; a

pint of oil is equal to 1 pound of butter, or to two pounds of cheese, that is, a pint of oil for the proportion of butter and cheese.

"A pint of wine, or half a pint of brandy, rum or arrack, is equal to a gallon of beer.

"One pound of fresh beef is equal to one pound of salt beef, and one pound and a half of fresh beef equal to one pound of pork."

The seamen above alluded to, to whom the rations of the convict guard are proportioned, are those serving on board His Majesty's ships and vessels of war. All that long list of extra comforts, before mentioned, to which convicts by their regulations are entitled, are in the case of the soldiers entirely withheld; for which reason, and indeed for a great many others, the situation of the prisoners is much more comfortable than that of their guard. Of this superiority in point of living, considering the casualties and uncertainty of supply many of them had formerly experienced, most of them express usually a strong regret at the termination of their voyage, persuaded that few situations on shore could equal the comfort they had enjoyed on board. When, after the boisterous stir of storiny passion has subsided, and that religious and moral instruction have stifled the last gasp of the insidious serpent which would whisper them back again to sin and wickedness, this expression of regret, as I have known it from the people on board the Neptune, is infinitely more strong, and the sense of separation from the favourite scene of their reformation more acute.

Many circumstances connected with the present

« PredošláPokračovať »