Surgeon-superintendents on convict ships

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery
J Pearn

Abstract

Surgeon-superintendents on the convict ships transporting convicted men, women and youths to Australia played a key role in the evolution of medical standards in Australia. The British Transportation Acts of 1717 and 1825 added the punishment of exile and banishment to the prevailing penology of the era, that of retribution and deterrence. The surgeon-superintendents formed a bulwark during the sea voyages (between 88 and 258 days), protecting the convicts against the potential abuses of the time. Between 1787 and 1868, some 160 000 convicts were transported to the open air gaols at Sydney, Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land (Hobart, Macquarie Harbour, Maria Island and Port Arthur), Moreton Bay, Melville Island and Fremantle. Seventeen convict ships left England for Australia in 1823 alone. The surgeon-superintendent's role on the high seas evolved over this time from one of amateur casualness with a primary responsibility to the system rather than to individual convicts, to that of a highly efficient, courageous professionalism. It became a new specialty discipline in its own right. Mortality on the convict transportation voyages fell from one in three convicts embarked in 1790 to zero mortality in the convicts transported on t...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 13, 2001·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery·S A Mellick

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