FIRST CONVICT SHIP TO BOTANY BAY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12283, 9 July 1914, Page 2

FIRST CONVICT SHIP TO BOTANY BAY.

- AN OFFICER'S DIARIES

After a voyage lasting over eight months', the "first convict squadron transporting 993 prisoners arrived in Botany Eav on January 10th, 1788. On board the Friendship transport was a voting lieutenant of marines, Ralph Clark, one ol the officers in charge, and he set himself the task daily of writing down the events of this grim passage. It- is a faithful chronicle (says the Dailv Telecraph), beginning with a list of ' the convicts, their ages and oil'eiiecs. and their savage sentences. Fur stealing a tea-kettle in Shrewsbury a man of GO was awarded 14 long, years. For house-breaking .a, lad of 13 cot seven vears. A woman won five "ears for lSd. and another, who proved "herself to be the worst fiend imaginable on board ship, had! seven years for nine guineas. In England Clark had left a young wife and a baby. His diary teems with rhapsodies of conjugal love; with fears and dreams; and with the drab business of irons and lashes, and of the horrors of their living freight. The women convicts early showed their mettle. Out at sea only for a, few days. Clark wishes that they were well out of .the ship. Half of, them are soon in irons, and the champion virago, still unquelled, is ordered to be flogged with a rope and tied to a pump afterwards. The corporal-who administered.the punishment "did not play with- her, but laid it home." All to no purposes. ' 'Never was there such a. set of rascals together. They are.. ten thousand -tim-as worse than the men," was Clark's comment on eighteenth-century female prisoners.. Clark was a sentimentalist- outside his duties. Fifteen days from England ho writes: —

May 28th, 1787.—F10g this day John Bennet, a convict, with 87 lashes, for breaking out of irons, a young man. but an old rogue. Read part of the story of the Humble- Friend in the Lady Magazine for the year 1775; very much taken with it.

This is the. 'first flogging Tecorded. e >rding to Cla/rk'i list, Bennet was 19 years old, he was sentenced to seven- years' imprisonment for highway robberv. October 11th, 1787. . . the doctor met with a great loss this afternoon-, one of the convict women whom he gave some, things to wash for him said that she lost seven, pairs of stockings overboard, but I am apt to think that they are not overboard, but that some of'the other women have stolen them ... if they were to lose anything of mine that I gave them vo wash I would cut them to pieces, etc. Eventually on October 27 the 21 female convicts were removed to another transport, and in the diary of November Bth, 1787, he says: — . . . and thank God "we have got quite clear of the most troublesome set (the women), and have received 40 sheep in their room, which. I have not the least mannor of doubt but we will find them much more agreeable shipmates that they (ladies) were, the men cannot hold a candle to one of thern, etc.

The glorious beauty of Sydney Harbor is acknowledged all over the world, and when Lieut. Clark gazed upon Port Jackson for the first time, on January 26th. 1788, he declared it to be the most beautiful place in the world ; but, remembering (Naaman-like) the waters of Abana and Pharphar, he naively added: "I cannot compare anything to come nearer to it than about three miles above Saltash to the weir."

Clark's description of the land aboiit the new settlement is worth quoting: There is no river or spring in the country that we have been able to find or meet with, all the fresh water conies out of large swamps, which the country abounds with, the country is overrun with large trees, not one acre of clear ground to be seen, nor is there one tree out of fifty but what is burnt with the .lightning, nor nothing in it fit for the substance of—man. What with earthquakes, thunder, and lightning, it is. to be. sure, a sweet country; the thunder and lightning is themost terrible I ever heard. It is the opinion of everybody here that Government will remove, the settlement to some other place, for if it- remains here the country will not be able to maintain- itself in. 100 years. Then .follows the harrowing account of life at a- convict station. One extract will suffice: —

February 27.—A criminal court sits to-day for the trial'of .such prisoners as •may be brought before them. Amongst the number are two that eamo out in the ship with me—Henry Lovall anil one Ryons. At 1 o'clock their sentence was read, the charge being clearly proved of their stealing butter, peas, and pork—Thomas Barrett, 'Henry Lovall. Joseph Hall, and Ryan. The three former received sentence of death, and the latter to receive 300 lashes. At o o'clock p.m. the battalion was ordered tinder arms for the sentence of the law to be put into execution, and soon, after we marched to the place of execution, which was a tree between the male and female convicts' camp. At a quarterafter n the unhappy men were brought to the place where they were to sutler, when after the parson had done prayers with them, the provost-marshal put'the halter about the neck of Thomas.Barret, and he mounted the ladder. From his going I don't think he had the least thought that he was to suffer, but when the provost-marshal put a handkerchief round his head he turned as white as a sheet, when soon after the ladder was pulled from under him, and he launched into the other world without a groan. From every account hewas a great rascal. The other two, .Lovall and Hall, were respited' until to-morrow. On the next day the two men had their sentence commuted to banishment. The severity of the sentence is. no doubt to be explained by the hriitality of the criminal law at that time; but in this case it has a certain justification, as the problem of food was a serious one. Clark says:— • • • - ... it is hard to have nothing but salt, beef to eat even- day, the Kmgai-oos are very plentiful, but hard o come at. A great number of them lave, been shot, and are very good eatnS- ■ - •_• • The crows go down the j

same as a barn door fowl in Englanu Nothing goes amiss here. Snakes anu lizards are become good eating, but them I cannot yet bring mvself to stomach.