1700s Law And Order, Execution and Transportation.
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A feature of English life in the eighteen century upon which foreigners commented critically was the 
penal code, the list of punishments imposed for breaches of the law. It was notably savage, and by 
the standards of a later age absurd as well as barbaric. The absence of an effective police force led 
the authorities to try to deter law-breakers by harsher penalties, even for relatively trivial offences. 

So by 1800 some two hundred crimes were punishable by death. They included (besides treason, murder, 
and attempted murder) forgery, horse-stealing, sheep-stealing, picking pockets, stealing five shillings 
from a shop, damaging Westminster Bridge, and impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner. To impose the capital 
penalty for trivial offences was simply to tempt the offenders to commit murder if they were caught 
in the act. In fact, in many cases juries refused to convict; and in many more the death-sentence was 
never carried out, but was commuted to transportation or other lesser punishment. The law was in practice 
more humane than it appeared to be. But this, as reformers pointed out, only showed how absurd the 
penal code was.

Transportation, the most usual alternative to the death penalty, had begun in the seventeenth century, 
when prisoners were sent in batches to Barbados and other American colonies to spend a term of years 
as "indentured servants" of plantation owners. It provided cheap labour for the colonists, and it was 
less expensive than maintaining prisons at home. In the later years of the eighteenth century it became 
for various reasons more difficult to send convicts to America, and Australia, whose coasts had just 
been explored by Captain Cook, was used instead. 

In 1787 the first cargo of prisoners, 717 in all, of whom 183 were women, was sent to Botany Bay, and 
convicts continued to be transported to New South Wales until 1840 and to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) 
until 1852. Although many of the convicts made good in Australia, transportation was a grim business. 
Conditions on the long voyage, much of it in the tropics, were so bad that it was not uncommon for 
one in five to die; in Australia their work was often to clear the bush, toiling in chains in the heat 
of the southern sun.

Over the years, about 160,000 people were sent there: men, women and children, sometimes as young as 
nine years old. 

Extract from The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.
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The convict ship Surprize, bound for Australia, was contracted from Camden, Calvert and King, whose 
agent on board was Thomas Shapcote. Surprize was one of the notorious Second Fleet ships to Port 
Jackson. 

Thomas Shapcote undertook to:

		"transport, clothe and feed the convicts for a flat inclusive fee 
		of £17 7s 6d (worth about the relative value of £1,854.00 today), 
		wether they landed alive or not."

She sailed from England with 254 male convicts on 19 January 1790. Her master was Nicholas Anstis. 
She arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 13 April 1790, and spent sixteen days there, taking on provisions. 
She was parted from her consorts in heavy weather and came in sight of Port Jackson on 23 June. Contrary 
winds blew her out to sea again and she did not make port until 26 June 158 days out from England. 

During the voyage thirty-six out of 254 convicts died (14%), and 121 (48%) were sick when landed.

In this privatised hell, the starving prisoners lay chilled to the bone on soaked bedding, unexercised, 
crusted with salt, shit and vomit, festering in scurvy and boils. She was the smallest ship of the fleet, 
and was an unsuitable vessel for so long a voyage, proving to be a wet ship even in moderate weather. 

In rough seas and heavy gales the convicts: 

		"were considerably above their waists in water"

according to the commander of the guards. One convict, Thomas Milburn, would later describe the voyage 
in a letter to his parents:

	"When any of our comrades that were chained to us died, we kept it secret for 
	as long as we could for the smell of the dead body, in order to get their 
	allowance of provision, and many a time have I been glad to eat the poultice 
	that was put on my leg for perfect hunger. I was chained to Humphrey Davies 
	who died when we were about half way, and I lay beside his corpse about a 
	week to get his allowance."


At Sea - the Voyage and Conditions on Board
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In the early days of transportation, conditions on board ship were terrible and many died on the 
journey, which took between four and six months. Towards the mid 19th century, things had improved 
and examination of the transportation records indicates that the number who perished on the voyage 
was low.

Many of the convicts who were sent to New South Wales in the early years were already disease ridden 
and many died from typhoid and cholera in the dreadful conditions on the ships. Those that survived 
were severely weakened by scurvy, dysentery and fever. In later years conditions were much improved 
and surprisingly few convicts died on the voyage.

There were many cases of sea sickness and stomach upsets, and occasionally measles. However the ships 
were kept reasonably clean and the ships' surgeons did their jobs well enough.

Convicts were taken aboard in chains and shackles. Once aboard these were unlocked. A hatch was opened 
and the convicts went below to the prison deck and the hatch was locked. Sometimes, however, they were 
kept in chains and behind bars even on board.

The convict quarters had ventilators to let in light and air. The Port end would be reasonably light 
but the bows dark and gloomy. On some ships, in the early days, convicts were kept below most of the 
time. In many cases they were restrained in chains and were only allowed on deck for fresh air and 
exercise.

The cramped, unhygienic conditions on the convict ships were very difficult. As the 19th century 
progressed, the conditions began to improve. By the 1840s, the routine was more enlightened. Surgeons 
were no longer in the pay of the ship's master and their sole responsibility was the well being of 
the convicts. Daily life even included a Religious Instructor who could both educate the convicts and 
look after their spiritual needs. Importantly, a bonus was paid to the ship charterers for the safe 
landing of the prisoners.

The filthy conditions gave way to a more ordered layout, as described by John Acton Wroth, a literate 
young man who was transported in the 1840's. He describes an area:

		- with bunks along either side of the deck, each separated from its 
		neighbour by a ten inch high board. Four berths of the lower and 
		upper tiers formed a mess, constructed so that four men could sit 
		round a table. Those men occupying mid ship slept in hammocks, 
		slung up each night over the tables. Younger men had these. Each 
		bed had a mattress, pillow and two blankets. The hammock had 
		two blankets only.

Convicts were divided into messes of 8 men. They were provided with cooking and eating utensils, tin 
pint mugs, spoons and one wooden 8 pint tin called a hub. A Knife and fork was issued each meal and 
collected afterwards. The hospital on board was just 15ft by 10ft 8in by 6ft high, with three iron 
bedsteads placed on bunks.

In the early days discipline was brutal, with regular use of the lash. In later days, if the convicts 
misbehaved they would get 'boxed' - put in a small confined space in the bows, in which a man could 
neither lie down nor stand.

On the upper deck were the wives and children of the 'pensioner guards'. In 1850, as a part of its 
emigration policy, the Home Government in England began to send out military pensioners to Australia 
to guard the prisoners on the voyage. This continued until 1864.

After the voyage, the pensioners were not retained as permanent convict guards and, in many cases, 
their families travelled with them. They sought work among the free settlers in the colony, but were 
always on hand to help in case of an outbreak among the prisoners.