The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-12

late the ship a cordon of buoys was moored round the bulk at distance of 75 yards and any person entering the circle without authority, or not being possessed with a counter-sign, rendered himself liable to the severest penalties even to being shot on sight. The lower deck was devoted to the worst type of convicts, and only prisoners of the better class were confined in the tween deck cells These men were employed at the quar- ries and in the construction of the pier and breakwater which stand today at Fort Williamstown, Melbourne, Australia, as reminders of the worst old days of the last century. It is recorded that during the time the Success" served as convict prison not one man escaped so perfect was the discipline and so rigor ous the confinement of the convicts. In 1857 the disclosures that had been made of the brutal and inhuman treatment meted out to prisoners created fierce outcry in Australia amounting almost to revolt against the English government and resulted in the abandonment of the fulk system. For some years later from 1860 to 1S6S--the Success" was used as a women's prison. then she became excessively a reformatory ship and ain- intuition store, and later all the prison hulks were ordered to be sold on the ex- Iress condition that they were to be
 
 the recollection of the residents of Mel bourne" By clerical error. however. that condition did not appear upan the terms of sale of the Success" Hence she became the only Australian convict ship afoat It was not until 1890, how ever. that she appeared before the pub lie as an exhibition ship. In 1892 a gang of Sydney, N. s. w, residents. stealthily boarded her to revenge themselves for ba t~ar or1 their rrida rqtlSah U ti1e exhibition of their ancestors, and all the figures were mutilated beyond repair. The figures were replaced. but in order to make their work more certain she was agnir attacked, scuttled and sunk. but after the lapse of some time and at enormous expense her owners raised her, and since then she has been on exhibition not only in the Antipodean colonies but as previously stated. in nearly every British port.
 Many of the cells are tenanted with fig tres of men who have made criminal history in Australia. Among them is Harry Power. a noted bushranger, who served seven pears in the gloomy lower deck and afterwards became a guide to ''isitprs an the ship. There may also ze seen the "six men of Dorset who. for forming an agricultural laborers' union with the object of feehfing an in- crease of Is per week wages, were sen- tencedto seven years transportation. and after. serving three years in the cells of the "Sucoess'' were pardorcd. monu- nert to their menory-,he first trade unionists--now stands in t,.eir native town and this is one of the many con- tra~ts afforded by the old convict ship. between the spirit of the time now and of a period so recent that it is sunk in the memory of any living. Readers of Rol. Poldrewood's Robbery under krns' cn1 zee Captain Starlight brother of an Irish fa~oret. who with a rewa-1 O. a5o0 on his head. dned daily with ,i~o r..i-f nf rciica. won q race on a --..~, shr- -s-,~hh~e1. and was eventually shot by troopers. Daniel Morgan. the " saaiel bnshrs ' ger ever known: Ow m suffol1. a man of great liGcrarv attai1- r,-ents who also served on the Success, . and many others may be seen in effigy.