Prison Hulks in Bermuda

'Far away in the Atlantic, the Islands of Bermuda lie like a number of tiny specks of coral, limestone, and rich vegetation in an ocean of deep blue. Their climate is, in general, warm and moist; beauty and fertility are their birthright.'

(The English Prison Hulks by W. Branch Johnson)

'Set in crystal waters, warmed by the sun, cooled by the gentle Gulf Stream breezes, adorned with sparkling beaches and lush vegetation, Bermuda is a shimmering paradise when experienced from the perspective of the privileged classes ashore, or the many thousands of tourists who have visited the colony during the 20th century.

(The Intolerable Hulks by Charles Campbell)

It is unlikely that the three hundred convicts who dropped anchor at Ireland Island, in Bermuda on board the Antelope in February 1824, or the thousands that followed them, would recognise these descriptions of Bermuda.

Under the provisions of the Act of 1776, convicts had been housed on board ships, or hulks, and had been kept to hard labour in Public Works. By an Act, dated 4^th July 1823, offenders convicted in Great Britain, and sentenced to transportation, could now be removed to other parts of His Majesty's dominions outside England. They could be confined either on land or on board any ship, and kept to labour on H.M. Dockyards and Public Works overseas. The Home Office acquired the Antelope, a deactivated frigate, from the Royal Navy, and after repairs and modification she was provisioned for a voyage to Bermuda. Under the command of Lieutenant Henry Hire, R.N., she sailed from Spithead on 5^th January 1824, and arrived in Bermuda on 8^th February, with a cargo of 300 convicts. Also on board were 200 Royal Marines, they were to perform the duty of Dockyard Guards. On 25^th February 1824, the Antelope, lying off the Dockyard at Ireland Island, was paid off and handed over to Commissioner Briggs, who now held legal authority over the convicts in Bermuda.

The first convicts were to be employed with construction of a breakwater and the clearance of a wood on the hillsides around the cove. The names of these first 300 convicts who arrived on the Antelope are to be found among the Home Office papers HO7/3, and in the Quarterly Returns in HO8/1, at The National Archives. These returns give each man's name, age, crime, date and place of conviction, and sentence. Many of them were teenagers or in their early twenties. Here is a list of some of the youngest among them.

Early in 1826 the Dromedary, with another 300 convicts joined the Antelope at Ireland Island. Three hundred more arrived on the Coromandel in 1828, with an additional 300 arriving in the Weymouth on 28^th February 1829. Three other ships, bringing more convicts, arrived in Bermuda in the 1840’s. They were the Tenedos in 1843, the Thames in 1844 and the Medway in 1848 and all three were used to house convicts.

By the end of December 1846, the number of convicts in Bermuda totaled 1,759, distributed among the hulks as follows: Dromedary 418, Coromandel 470, Tenedos 407, and Thames 284. [1]

In 1848 five hulks were listed in operation at the Dockyard at Ireland Island, Dromedary, Coromandel, Weymouth, Tenedos, and Medway, with the Antelope and Thames stationed in St George's.

In 1848 that the Tenedos was fitted out as a hospital ship and moved to moorings off Boaz Island. Our idea of what conditions on board the hulks were like depends on who was describing them. In 1859, Chaplain to the hulks, Reverend J.M. Guilding, wrote, 'in the close and stifling nights of summer the heat between decks is so oppressive as to make the stench intolerable, and to cause the miserable inmates frequently to strip off every vestige of clothing and gasp at the portholes for a breath of air.'

Captain Ferdinand Whittingham, an army officer, published an account of life in Bermuda based on his observations made during an 18 month posting to the garrison in Bermuda. According to him the convicts had an easy life, and enjoyed more privileges and comforts than British soldiers or honest labourers back home in England.

William Jones, alias William Sydes, JONES, was supposedly released from the Bermuda convict station in May 1845 and wrote a scathing report of life on the Bermuda hulks, saying that they were ten times worse than those in England.

In the Original Correspondence for 1851 I found a copy of a letter from the Home Office enclosing an extract from the Journal of the Chaplain of the Gaol at Lewes, Sussex including statements made by a returned convict named John Morgan, respecting the treatment of convicts at Bermuda. Morgan is reported to have said, 'that he was a great deal better off abroad than any Tradesman at home - he had more money to spend and was never without 3 or 4 dollars in his pocket, that on Xmas day he spent 15/- of his own money extra on Eating and Drinking - that he worked 8 hours a day for Government, & over that for himself - that's how he used to get his money - that he would not have come back only he was brought back, & that sooner than he would know distress he would go a thieving and be transported again. What time you are in England is the worst of it, you are kept more closer - when you get abroad you don't care a d ---'.

Later in the statement we learn that Morgan's dinner on Christmas Day cost him 3 dollars, and he had 'roast pork, baked taters, roast Duck, plum pudding and a bottle of rum.'  [2]

Periodic outbreaks of dysentery were responsible for many deaths among the convicts on board the hulks in Bermuda. They also suffered from ophthalmia, due to the glare of the sun on sea and limestone rocks, this would cause men to stumble and fall as they walked even along a straight and smooth path. The worst scourge of all, however, was Yellow Fever. There were outbreaks in 1829, 1837, 1843, 1844 and 1856, the worst epidemic of all occurring in 1853. It was believed to have arrived on a ship from Cuba, in July of 1853, and swept over the islands until December that same year, claiming more than 650 victims from the civilian, military, and convict population. 160 convicts lost their lives. The Colonial Office Dispatch in CO37/150, is entirely given over to reports on the 1853 outbreak of Yellow Fever. There are the answers given by various people to set questions relating to conditions on board the hulks, giving such information as the weekly diet - 'Fresh meat, 4lbs; salt pork, 1½lbs; soft bread, 7½lbs; biscuit, 1lb; potatoes, 2lbs; rice, 12oz; cocoa, 1lb 5oz; tea, 1½oz; sugar, 10½oz; grog, ½ gill daily; cocoa mornings, and tea evenings.' We are told the space allotted to each prisoner 'is from 190 to 200 cubic feet.' We are also told the number of men on each hulk 'attacked' by the disease, and the number who died.    

There is a list of all the patients who died of Yellow Fever in the Tenedos Convict Hospital Ship between the 9^th July and the 9^th December 1853. So we learn that the first prisoner to die, William Foreman, age 21, was admitted from Boaz Island Prison on the 5^th July 1853, having been 'attacked' by the disease on the 1^st July. The last death from fever on board the Tenedos was that of 25-year-old Alfred Humphries, from the Medway hulk. He had arrived on board the Tenedos, as a Bed maker, in September, succumbing to the fever on the 2^nd December and died on the 9^th December. I now have a list of all the convicts who died of Yellow Fever during this outbreak, and I am in the process of matching their names with those in the Quarterly Returns to find out where and when they were tried and what their offences were.

So far I have only looked at a selection of Colonial Office Dispatches from Bermuda, but enough to see that they contain a wealth of information about the prisoners held there on the hulks.

It is sometimes possible to find letters from friends and relations of the convicts among the Dispatches. For example I found the following letter in CO37/138 folio 319.                                                                                                                             Workhouse, Londonderry                                                                             
17 June 1851

Gentlemen,

I beg to acquaint you that my husband James Deeham was sentenced at Londonderry in 1847 to 21 years transportation. He was in Bermuda in the Summer of 1849 when I applied to your Honors that I might be sent out with my two children to him, and was then informed that if he was in Australia on a Ticket of Leave that my request might be complied with, since that time I have learned that many of the convicts then in Bermuda have been removed elsewhere and humbly beg leave to request you will have the kindness to inform me whether he has been removed or whether I could now be permitted to join him with my two children

                                                                 I have the honor to be

                                                                          Gentlemen

                                                                  Your obedient Humble Servant

                                                                           Rose Deeham

The following is a transcript of the reply sent to Rose Deeham. (CO37/138 folio 321)                                                                    

3 July 1851

Rose Deeham,

In reply to your letter of the 17 ulto. I am directed by Earl Grey to express to you his Lordship's regret that from enquiries he has caused to be made it appears that James Deeham died at Bermuda on the 11 February 1848. Lord Grey apprehends that this information had not yet been brought under the notice of the Secretary of State for the Home Dept. on the date of your former Memorial asking to join your husband in the Colonies.

Among the Colonial Office records are many discharge certificate relating to released convicts. As well as the date and place of trial they give the prisoners age, height, hair and eye colour and complexion. They also show the amount of money paid to the man after deducting his passage home.

Attempts were made to escape from the hulks in Bermuda, but to date I have not looked into any of these attempts. In The English Prison Hulks, Branch Johnson gives the following account of the attempted escape of John Smith, alias Sydney Jack.

'He had been concerned with four other men (one of them his brother) in the murder of a Berkshire clergyman about 1850, but, by turning King's Evidence, had managed to save his own skin and was transported to Sydney. Thence he escaped and reached England; soon afterwards he was re-captured and sent to Bermuda. At Bermuda he made two attempts; both were unsuccessful, and, in addition to being flogged, he was compelled to serve his full time instead of (as was usual) being sent home with some months of his sentence remitted. On the first occasion he seized a boat, provisioned it by robbing a house, crossed the reef, and was well on the way to the American coast when a change of wind blew him back. A whaler, whose captain was deaf alike to his threats and his entreaties, captured him. Brought again to the hulks, he was loaded with irons, partly as punishment, partly to prevent a second attempt; but it was just while he was at this apparent disadvantage that the second attempt was made. He and several other prisoners similarly ironed were being marched to church by a warder when they secured their guard and ran into the forest. Sydney Jack determined at first to fend for himself. Knocking off his fetters, he spied a boat drawn up on the beach, and attempted to make away in her; but her ballast had been removed, and she capsized when he jumped in. He had no option, therefore, but to follow the rest; though they succeeded for some time in eluding pursuit, all four were eventually re-taken.'

The 1840'S saw a large influx of Irish prisoners to Bermuda, due mostly to hard times brought about by the famine following the failure of the potato harvest. Captain Elliot, who served as Governor of the Bermudan Island Group during 1848 and 1849 showed particular concern for these Irish prisoners. In June 1848 he sent the following dispatch to Earl Grey, the Home Secretary.

‘It will be remarked with anxiety, on examining the list of 704 prisoners, sent from Ireland, in the Medway and Bangalore, that many of them were convicted of stealing food, and agrarian offences; the first, no doubt, chiefly attributed to the dreadful calamity which befell the poorer classes of people during the last two years, and the last in a high degree to the inflammatory practices of others, in the time of desperate need. Perhaps Her Majesty's Government may be pleased (taking all these circumstances into consideration, on the return of a state of comparative tranquility in Ireland), to permit me to appoint a Commission in this colony, for selecting individuals from the Irish prisoners, whom it may be permissible to recommend for removal to Australia, on the ticket of leave or conditional pardon. These prisoners are for the most part friendless men in humble stations of life, and your Lordship will feel that they are entitled to any extenuating considerations which I can advance in their behalf, whilst they are conducting themselves steadily and submissively at this depot.' [3]

Governor Elliot also showed particular concern over the large number of juvenile prisoners who were among those to arrive on the Medway and Bangalore.

'Poor and scanty food and the hard things of their infancy have for the most part left these lads with a lower stature and more childish appearance than their age alone would suggest, though it will shock H.M. Government to learn that twelve of them are under sixteen years of age, and that of the thirteen-year-olds one has been sentenced to fifteen years transportation for sheep-stealing!' [4]

Governor Elliot ordered the boys to be kept separate from the rest of the prisoners, and not be allowed to work in gangs with the men. Instead they were to be taught trades such as shoemaking, tailoring and carpentry.

The problem of keeping the aging hulks in a habitable condition presented an enormous expense each year and it was eventually decided that the convict workers would be better housed in a shore prison, and by 1847 plans were being brought forward for the development of a site on Boaz Island. The first of the convicts were moved to Boaz Island Prison in August 1852, and although the Dockyard authorities proudly announced that by May 1854, the whole of the prisoners had been transferred from the hulks to Boaz Island Prison, returns for the Medway show that this hulk continued to accommodate around 600 prisoners until it finally closed in 1861. Records for the Tenedos show that about 200 prisoners were housed on board between 1857 and 1860. In 1861 the number of convict workers held in Bermuda had been reduced to such an extent that they could all be housed ashore.

By 1863 the 130 convicts remaining in the Convict Establishment sailed for England on board the Sir George Seymour, and the building was turned over to the military authority. They embarked on the 25^th March 1863. It was found necessary to punish, 'corporally and otherwise', seven of the prisoners on the eve of their departure, 'in consequence of insubordinate conduct.' The dispatch continues, 'as there is some reason to anticipate that they may show a similar spirit during the voyage where there are few or no means of repression, I have specially warned that a repetition of such behaviour will be followed by the loss of the remainder of their mitigated time. I have instructed Assistant Overseer Douglas, who is in charge of the Prisoners, to report specially on these men on their arrival and I request your Grace to be good enough to cause the requisite communication to be made to the Prison Authorities at home should it be found necessary to enforce further punishment against them.'

The names of the seven men are listed as follows: -

No.1812 B CARNEY

No.1875 J BUSHELL

No.1917 W NORBURY

No.2073 J BAMBER

No.2103 C MAHONEY

No.2029 A SHORT

No.2012 W TAYLOR. [5]

This is just a short outline on the hulks in Bermuda, further information will be added as, and when I find it.

References:

The English Prison Hulks - W. Branch Johnson

The Intolerable Hulks - Charles Campbell

Forty Years of Convict Labour, Bermuda 1823-1863 - C.F.E. Hollis Hallett

The National Archives: -

Original Correspondence, Bermuda - CO37/119; CO37/121; CO37/138; CO37/150; CO37/186

Quarterly Prison Hulk Returns - HO8/1

Hulks in Bermuda - HO7/3