Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-03-22
ON A CONVICT SHIP.
FROM ENGLAND 10 GIBRALTAR IN
COMPANY WITH $50 CRIMINALS.

Intractable Convict Received Four Dozen
Lashes With the Cat.
II know something of life on a convict
ship" said a retired officer of an East In
dian merchantmen. II was on the War
WICK, a merchantmen just back from a
voyage to Calcutta, when the government
chartered her to carry convicts and troops
from England to Gibraltar. 1t was a most
interesting experience. We were to take
convicts from three different prisons.
About midnight on Dec. %, 1869, we left
the East Indian docks and dropped down
the river to Gravesend, where the next aft
ernoon we took on 100 men of the Seventy
first highlanders-by the way, they were
all 1~rishmen-who were to act as guard
for the convicts. Next tide We towed to
Sheerness, near the North Foreland, where
we came to an anchor and waited for the
first installment of convicts sent from
Chatham. They were brought alongside
on a small steamer. I shall never forget
how they looked to mol was a young
ster then-in their yellow and black
stripes and with the short, flat, brown ar
row, which is the English government
mark, stamped on their clothing. Having
got them aboard, we made sail for Ports
mouth, IL next receiving station, where
we got about a hundred more. From there
we sailed to Portsmouth and took the bal
ance of $50 from the prison there.
I'VE lay in Portland Roads three or four
days on account of storm and then started
Tor Gibraltar. While lying there an Incl
dent occurred which I can never forget.
But first let me tell you something about
the arrangement and discipline of the ship
on this voyage. A staff surgeon of the
royal navy was in charge of the ship, and
every one was subordinate to him. He
was absolutely an autocrat. We were a
full rugged iron sailing vessel of I, zoos tons
register, and we had now on board, with
convicts, wardens, soldiers, crew and fam
lilies of some of the soldiers, about 425
souls. So you can see we were pretty
thick.
The sailors, who usually had quarters in
the forecastlo, had to give them up and
live in part of the after between decks. A
barricade was built across the ship at the
mainmast, both between decks and on the
main deck. The convicts lived between
decks forward and were turned up for ex-
ercise every day before this barricade ON
the main deck.
But while we lay in Portland Roads a
convict named Sturgess, who was serving
u go years term, became intractable, and
on boing reproved by one Of the wardens
threatened the latter's life when his SEN
tence should be served. I fancy if what
followed should happen in one Of your
penitentiaries a howl of denunciation
would go up all over the country, but
British prison discipline is very rigorous,
you know. Sturgess was Immediately put
il. irons and thrust into tho solitary con-
ttlcment box for "a hours and sentenced
To receive four dozen at tho expiration of
his confinement. He was a stolid brute and
did not seem to mind, rcmarking he had
been logged five times before and it would
go hard with him if he couldn't take an
other dose.
1T is generally the duty of the boat
swain to do the flogging aboard ship, but
tho night Waterman from Portland prison
was sent off to punish this fellow. With
the exception Of the women, every one
aboard was compelled to turn up to wit
ness the nogging. All the convicts were
ordered up before the barricado, and each
ono crancd his neck to see the show and
anxiously watched Sturgoss to see if he
were game. The thief's cat, with a knot
In each string, was the weapon OF punish
ment. Tho convict was brought up, strip
ped to the waist, his feet and knees dashed
to two spars which were stood upright on
the deck, his hands were chained, and a
rope passing under the chain triced them
up high above his head, and his breast
was pushed against an iron grating dashed
between the spars. The staff surgeon then
read the accusation and sentence, and the
night Waterman was ordered to do his
duty. I can SEQ him now as he ran his
hand among the strings of the cat and
then with a quick, sharp stroke brought
it down between the convict's shoulder
blades. The chief warden, Donald Balm,
counted the strokes, One, two, three
and after each stroke the convict counted,
too, and when he got to "a he said coolly:
"'Well, thcro's half Of Them
"When ho received the forty-eighth,
without having once f]inched or muir
INJURED, the other 240 convicts set up a
cheer. But the staff surgeon turned on
them and Numbered:
IF you do not keep s%ilonce, I'll fog
avery nan Of YOU
about their food? 1t was of a better
quality than that furnished either tho SOL
aiers or crew. They always got corncu
beef where the sailors got salt horse. Com
pressed vegetables and preserved potatoes
were supplied them; also suet for their
duff where that of the sailors was mixed
with slush from the coppers. Then they
had plums for their duff of a Sunday,
. while the sailors got none in their lump
of Lead The %conyicts got a gill of sherry
every day at II where the soldiers got a
pint Of porter and the crew nothing. Many
a convict told me he wished the voyage
could last for years.
"They had their amusements too. They
we're not allowed to read newspapers, but
once in awhile one would steal one from
a warden's pocket. The warden would
discover the loss, and hunting up the thief
take his paper away and stick it back in
his pocket. But before be had gone very
far another would pick his pocket. I have
seen a warden kept trotting a whole fore
noon hunting up a precious old journal he
had brought aboard with him. Then they
often amused themselves by holding mock
trials. They had judge, jury and counsel
for the prosecution and defense. Ono
night some Of us got permission to go
down to the main hatchway and look
through the bars on one of these trials. 1t
was one Of the funniest performances I
ever saw. The Judges bench was q mess