The morning times., 1897-01-03
A VETERAN CONVICT SHIP.
After More Than a, Hundred Years
of Life She Is Now at Rest.
Ashton RfpoTtsr.

ASHTON Hfp0TfsF.
The most renlarkabIey vessel that has
yet passed up the ship canal may now
be seen at the Pomona docks. In some
respects. indeed, the Success must be the
most remarkable vessel afloat. Constructed
almost entirely of Indian teak, with the
square cut stern and quarter galleries
or century ago, she was launched in
1880 at Moulmein, rice settlement near
the Rangoon, in BurInah, and traded for
many years between England and the
Indies as a first-class merchantmen. Sub
sequently she made occasional trips TO
Australia, chiefly as an eInigrant and
passenger vessel, until in 1852 size found
herself left at her moorlngs at Melbourne,
abandoned by both crew and captain
Vessels in Australian ports We're liable
in those days to such desertiOns, for the
gold fever was at its height Soon after
ward the Success was sold TO the Vic
torian government, whose goal acconlmo-
dation under the stimulus OF the gold rush
had quite given out, and by whom she
was now converted into a prison ship,
with seventy-twO cells. The carpenters
who carried out this piece Of work Were
paid, we are told. at the rate OF 50
shillings per day, so magnetic was the in
fluence of the gold fields and SO great the
difficulty of retaining skilled workmen
in Melbourne. 1t is in prison form that
the Success is now making tour Of the
chief ports of this country
The vessel remains apparently in much
the same condition as when her decks
witnessed the scenes of horror which led,
although not until 1851, to the abolition
nf fIII in Y n
quite understand. after an inspection OF
the penal appliances OF the ship, the
anxiety OF the people OF Melbourne 10 have
all traces OF that odiOus system destroyed.
Tie Success is, indeed, afIoat today, thanks
simply to a bIunGer on the part OF the
authorities, by which she was permitted
to escape the destruction that finally over
took tile other members OF the prison
fleet
An effort to remedy this bIunder was
made in 1892, when some OF the cOlOniSJs
of Sydney succeeded in scuttling the ves-
sci and sending her To the bottom Of Port
Jackson. Six months later the Success was
raised to the surface, and last year she
set out, after an interval OF forty years.
on another voyage across the seas, arriving
at London about five months and a half
from the time OF her departure from Ade-
lalde, with not a stick lost or the slightest
weakness discovered As we now see her,
the Success is sufficiently repulsive TO take
pre-eminence in any chamber OF horrors.
"Waxworks'' were not al all necessary TO
heighten the effect or stimulate the i'm
agInatiOn, and good many visitors will
find these efngies rather a source Of
humorous relief than OF additional gloom.
The show, on the whole, would have been
better without them.
In addition to the waxworks and the
relics OF crime in the earlier DAYS OF the
colonies, there are a number of articles
Illustrating the methods OF the later bush
rangers, more particularly Of the Kelly
gang, who were extirpated as late as 1850,
at cost to the Victorian government Of
no less than 115 900 pounds. A suit Of
armor originally worn by one Of the out
laws is, perhaps, the most interes ing Of
these accessories