The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-11
ON A CONVICT SHIP.
The Responsibility of the surgeon-A
 Remarkable Prisoner.

death of a tailor. who died of brain ! fever. Poor fellow, he had brooded over his misfortune and refused food from the time he left Portsmouth. His rawlings were hideous, and his death | was a happy release. He had been convicted of the paltry offense of steal ing a small sum of money from his
 aunt, a misery old woman, whose only visitor he was. He always maintained
 his innocence to the last, and the offi- eials on board thought that as he diff l fered so much from the others (who owned to their offenses, and who bore l their lot with tolerable equanimitD I that he was innocent. Up to that time Eof his arrest he had always been de- voted husband and father, and an ex- emplary man. His burial at sea was 1 a pathetic incident. No mourners, the quartermaster and captain standing while the body wrapped in canvas,
 was slid into the sea. l The health of that large consign- ment of human beings was a matter I of great responsibility to the ship surgeon, Dr. Bell, for having no Vegetables, an epidemic of scurry broke out which the physician sought I to avert by liberal doses of lime water
 administered to unwilling partakars. l On one occasion the surgeon reported
 a case of insubordination. Capt D.. one of the prisoners, had refused to touch the lime water. as it had been ! mixed in the bathtub. the only avail
 able vessel of sufficiently gigantic pro- portions. Insubordination was punish ed for AS hours in the guard room but my father passed the matter over, with the exclamation Poor devil! I l don't wonder
 A storm arose when we were off the coast Of Tasmania, and the men I besought of their keepers to set them I free, as they were chained in their
 hunks by the leg. Above the roaring of the wind we could hear the shouts of the men. Let us free; we shall
 drown like rats!' T only stole a ] watch" cried one. Thus their delin- I quencies were published all night for l the benefit of those on board, until
 dawn, when the storm abated, Mili- I tary discipline was inexorable, and had 4 the ship gone down that night they
 would have gone down, too in their \ hunks, for the danger os unloosing i such a mob was too great. A fortnight I later, when the ship dropped anchor in
 Port Jack the first sight that greeted us was IA men hanging by the neck 1tfrom temporary scaffolds. They had E been hanged that morning outside of the jail, as was the custom in England in those days. Justice was speedy. I These men were highwaymen; it was 1.-the custom to awe the spectators and 5E to hang several of them together in tpublic. On landing in Sydney now,
 with it's beautiful city and gayly.
 dressed and happy crowds, it is diffi- cult to think that such scenes were \ enacted there less than TO years ago.,
 and to know the workings of the i'm Iperial mind which could make Ia 5I dumping ground of so fair spot.
 ] One of the most remarkable pris- oners on board our ships was Capt. 4 IC-. He had been convicted of \ bigamy and sentenced to transporta- l ton and five years penal servitude
 The circumstances of his case were as follows: Tn his youth he had made
 an unhappy alliance, and before he de-
 parted for India, whither he was or
 dered on active service, he had a legal
 separation made out. Remaining in
 India il years, he just returned in time I to be sent to Spain, where he dis- \ tinguished himself in action, losing an
 arm, and winning the much coveted . Victoria cross (for special bravery) 2 among other decorations. He was the
 'lion" of the hour, and peeresses vied | with one another in adding luster to . their entertainments by the presence l of the handsome soldier whose breast
 glittered with medals pinned on by his . sovereign.
 l Among the ladies he met at this time
 was an heiress of distinction, young \ beautiful. and with suitors all around, q whom she disdained because she had
 fallen in love with the gallant captain. s While in India, several years before,
 Capt C--had heard of his wife's
 death, and 1t seems extraordinary that
 he did not verify the news before en- l tertaining any idea of a second mar
 riage. He did not do so, however, and
 he married the heiress in spite of the
 opposition of her family, who, being Roman Catholics, objected to her 4 marrying out of the fold. He was a
 Protestant. They were married nearly
 a year, and life went merrily with
 them, when a whisper came which
 startled military and aristocratie cir cles. Capt C--'s wife had appear ed; she had been 'in retreat" in a convent. and on coming out had heard
 of her husbands brilliant achievements
 and of his marriage. His arrest fol- flowed, and he was relentlessly pro- secuted by his second wife's brother
 His failure to verify his wife's SUD-
 posed death went against him at his
 trail, and he was convicted.
 ; His brother officers never could un-
 derstand how so honorable man could make such a mistake, and they
 always believed him innocent, but } British law was obdurate, although great influence was brought to bear } that he might be spared transportation.
 His second wife stood by him and be. } lieved in him, and continued to write } the most impassioned love letters (which my father, in his official capa- l city, was obliged to read) for three
 years, when they suddenly ceased, and
 no answer was received to repeated
 letters from Capt C-----, who imagined