Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History




Convict Ship Tyne - 1819


Embarked 180 men
Voyage 5 months
Deaths: 1
Surgeon's Journal: Yes
Previous vessel: General Stewart arrived 31st December 1818
Next vessel: Globe arrived 8 January 1819
Master Carsey Bell.
Surgeon Henry Ryan
Follow the Irish Convict Ship Trail
Prisoners and passengers of the Tyne identified in the Hunter Valley district

The Tyne was built by Brent in 1806 and launched in 1807. She had 2 decks and a length of 112ft. Principal Managing Owner was John Locke. [1]

The Convicts

The convicts of the Tyne came from counties and cities in Ireland - Meath, Cork, Dublin, Kings, Limerick, Ormond, Westmeath, Louth, Drogheda, Waterford, Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Longford, Kildare, Armagh, Tipperary, Sligo, Tyrone, Kildare, Galway, Monaghan, Cavan, Mayo, Donegal, Queen, Leitrim and Fermanagh. [3]

Departure

The Tyne was the next convict ship to leave Ireland for New South Wales after the departure of the Martha in August 1818. She departed the Cove of Cork on 16 July 1818. [2]

Military Guard

The Military Guard consisted of 29 rank and file of the 84th regt., Officer of the Guard was Captain Roe (Rowe) of the 84th regiment. Captain Roe was accompanied by his wife whose health had been impaired but who benefited much by the voyage. Other detachments of the 84th arrived on the General Stewart in 1818, Surry in 1819, Lord Sidmouth in 1819 and the Coromandel in 1820.

Cabin Passengers

Passengers included D.A.C.G. George Hull wife Ann and two children Hugh Munro Hull and Georgina Rose Hull. Select here to read an extract of an account of their voyage on the Tyne and the family's early days in NSW and VDL.

Surgeon Henry Ryan

Henry Ryan kept a Medical Journal from 16 July 1818 to 13 January 1819

He reported that the prisoners were remarkably healthy. Several of the men a few days after they came on board were attacked with slight inflammatory affections of their bowels which was soon removed by bleeding; Henry Ryan attributed the cause of these attacks to the sudden change of diet from jail allowance of bread and milk, to their full allowance of one pound of beef, one pound of bread and a sufficient quantity of vegetables; and oatmeal for their breakfast.

Several of the convicts were of the poorest order, therefore the change was greater and more likely to produce sickness. Attention was paid to cleanliness and allowing the convicts on deck every day. Special attention was given to the very old men on board and port wine, Donkins' Preserved Meat and tea were frequently served to them. [4]

The Voyage

From their very first days on board they were allowed on deck the whole of the day except when the weather was bad. Wash days were Wednesdays and Saturdays and muster days Sundays and Thursdays and the surgeon rarely had occasion to find fault with the cleanliness of the prisoners. Fires were kept on the prison deck and 'Devils' burnt. The boys attended a school for one hour every day. The only death on board, Owen Ingoldsby was a very old and debilitated man who came on board from the hospital.

There was an enquiry held on board the vessel on 18th October to investigate the possibility of a mutiny. It was revealed in the enquiry that a rumour had circulated that Captain Bell had a large sum of money on board with which he planned to purchase goods after departing Sydney. Several convicts gave evidence but no further action seems to have been taken. [4]

Port Jackson

The Tyne arrived in Port Jackson on 4 January 1819.

The Sydney Gazette reported on Saturday 16th January - On Wednesday morning last, at ten o'clock, His Excellency; the Governor inspected the prisoners who were that morning landed, having arrived in the General Stuart and Tyne; all of whom were in a perfectly healthy state, denoting the humane and judicious attention they had received upon their voyage.

His Excellency, on the muster of the General Stuart's people, enquired whether they had any complaints against the Surgeon Superintendent, under whose guidance they had been especially placed; or against the Officer of the military guard; or against the Commander of the ship, or his Officers; which demand was answered by a universal cry of 'no, no, no, none, none whatever.' We are sorry to add, however, that several of the men were distinguished from the others for a most daring and insulting demeanour towards the Commander of the guard, and the detachment under his orders; for which they were directed to be placed in the gaol gang during His Excellency's pleasure, with the assurance that their removal from thence would depend upon a reformed conduct
.

The inspection of the Tyne's prisoners was accompanied by no such complaint; the men were reported to have generally well conducted themselves; and were appropriated, as were all the others with the exception already noticed, to suitable situations. [5]

The prisoners were assigned to the Parramatta, Windsor, Liverpool and Bringelly districts.

Notes and Links

1). Prisoners and passengers of the Tyne identified in the Hunter Valley district

2). Return of Convicts of the Tyne assigned between 1st January 1832 and 31st March 1832 (Sydney Gazette 14 June 1832) -

Timothy Casking -Labourer assigned to George Townshend at Trevallyn, Paterson

3). George Hull (1787-1879), assistant commissary general, was born on 13 August 1787 in the parish of Iwerne, Dorset, England, son of Thomas Hull, a farmer and an officer in the county militia, and his wife Catherine, nee Short. After receiving a classical education he was articled to a solicitor at Mitcham with the intention of following a legal profession, but learnt of the demand for accountants on the Commissariat Department staff in the war in Spain. Through the influence of Sir Mark Wood, he was offered and accepted a Treasury clerkship. He sailed for Lisbon in 1810. In 1814 he received from the Duke of Wellington a commission as assistant to the commissary-general. At the end of the war he returned to England, and married Anna, only daughter of Lieutenant Hugh Munro, formerly of the Scots Guards. For three years he served at Somerset House. In 1818 he was ordered on foreign service and was given an option of proceeding to Canada or to New South Wales.[6]

The following account of George Hull's voyage on the Tyne was printed in the Quadrilateral in 1874.....

It was early in the year 1818 that an officer received his instructions from the Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury to pack up his luggage and proceed to Botany Bay, where he was to be placed in charge of a Department. He had a young wife not then 18 years old, and two interesting scions, one male and the other female. The mother had an interesting specimen of each sex when she and Governor, as our fathers are Tasmanically called, took up their cabin in the Tyne Convict Ship of which he formed one of the Officers of the Military Guard, and sailed for Cork to take in a cargo of 350 carcasses of human flesh condemned to banishment from their home for terms varying from seven years to the very indefinite period of life.

Of Cork and its beautiful harbour of course the boy recollects nothing, as he was then only just cutting his first tooth; but from the glowing description he had since heard of it from his mother who had been born in the Scilly Islands and had spent all her other life of nearly 15 years in London, he fancies it must be and have been a beautiful spot.

Having placed in their various messes the 350 of the 'finest pisantry' the good ship Tyne as she was called in the Bills of Lading; but the 'infernal old Tub' as all her passengers denominated her, sailed away merrily at the rate of six knots an hour.

Of the voyage very little is to be said; for seven long weary months, with a scanty supply of fresh meat, and a disagreeable Captain, the Tyne labored through the sea; for at no port would the grim Skipper touch for supplies. A mutiny broke out amongst the feverish wild spirits on board, and when by the treachery of one of the conspirators it was discovered, there was a tale of intended horrors enough to make each individual hair stand on end like quills upon the rambling hedgehog. As for the 'ould rip' of a Captain (he is dead now, R. I. P.) whenever there was a shark alongside, he used to call to the nervous little mother to bring out the boy and bait the hook.

That boy would have been spared much sorrow, much care, and trouble, had the hook been so baited !

But from the perils of the sea, and of mutiny, and of sharks, the passengers, a motley crew, all escaped, and arrived safely at Sydney, having passed through its magnificent Heads, where the Geological construction is so wild as to drive even a Wintle mad in endeavouring to name the era of its formation. The sun shone warmly as the convict ship sailed up the River crowded, as now, with beautiful Islands, and covered with apparently a new species of forest, and foliage, and filled with birds of glistening plumage, and interspersed with flowers of every hue.

The anchor was dropped in Sydney Cove and the coxswain of the Guard Boat with Capt. , the Post Officer, in full Royal Naval uniform came on board. Another boat was also in attendance on the ship, rowed by four men and a coxswain, and the dress of the crew which would hardly suit the Derwent Rowing Club, was yellow jackets and tights; for it was then the custom to lend prison clothing to the aborigines who always forgot to return it to store, and objected to wear the trowser part of the outfit.

On landing, old General Macquarie a countryman of the lady's family, was at the wharf, and the good old soldier tucking her arm under his, deliberately shouldered her boy and marched up the street to Government House, where quarters were found for the Officers till room could be got; the Military Barracks being then in course of erection from slabs and mud plaster.

In Sydney they stayed only a few months, enough time to have been robbed by bushrangers, and nearly stung to death by mosquitoes - and, by way of digression again, there is a story of an old scotch lady who had heard much of mosquitoes in India from her son, who had told her of their long probosces etc., when she saw an Elephant, she exclaimed, Eh! Sandy I do ye ca'yon a mosqueetee?

Marching orders came, and again the baggage was packed, amongst which were a desk picked up from a soldier for a dollar on the field of Vittoria, a box a present from an old monk from the Carthusian monastery of Estremadura; and the Cabin of the Admiral Cockburn, Briggs master, took the wanderers in, for a voyage to the Derwent in 1819. In twelve days from sailing, they landed on Hunters Island, (now the old wharf) where two or three Gibbets still stood
.[7]

References

[1] British Library

[2] Bateson, Charles, Library of Australian History (1983). The convict ships, 1787-1868 (Australian ed). Library of Australian History, Sydney, pp.342-343, 382

[3] Convict Indents State Archives NSW Series NRS 12188 Item [4/4006] Microfiche 640

[4] Journal of Henry Ryan on the voyage of the Tyne in 1818 - 19. Ancestry.com. UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1857 Medical Journal of James Rutherford on the voyage of the Mangles in 1833. Original data: The National Archives. Kew, Richmond, Surrey.

[5] Sydney Gazette 16 January 1819

[6] Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

[7] The Quadrilateral 1874