| Thomas's Journey
Journey
to New South Wales
The
Second Fleet journey is known as one of the most dreadful journeys
ever undertaken by the convict fleets to New South Wales. Even
before the start of the journey, the convict ships were already
overcrowded and cramped with sick and starving prisoners.
The
journey was to become known as one of the most horrific
events at sea. The journey took six months and the convicts were
kept in leg irons for the whole trip with only a few hours of
daylight allowed per day. The convict's water and food was rationed
each day with many of them suffering starvation, fever and dysentery.
Many convicts did not last the journey and were unceremoniously
thrown overboard. Thomas and the other convicts also had to endure
standing in bilge water for much of the journey although it appears
Harriet Hodgetts being a free woman did not have to endure this.
The
Second Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove greeted by a bitter winter
on the 28th June 1790. Even as the fleet arrived in the cove,
the prisoners who succumbed to disease and the effects of starvation
were still being thrown overboard on the beach.
It
was truly a heartbreaking and horrifying scene as dozens of sick
and starving convicts could either barely walk as they reached
shore or died between the ship and the shore. Of the estimated
figure of 983 convicts who embarked on the Second Fleet journey
it is said that 423 prisoners died either on the way or soon
after arriving at Sydney Cove.
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