Our convicts : their riots and their causes : containing startling revelations of the frightful abuses of our convict system, official correspondence, etc., etc. : presented to Parliament / by W. Thwaites.
- Thwaites, W.
- Date:
- 1861
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Our convicts : their riots and their causes : containing startling revelations of the frightful abuses of our convict system, official correspondence, etc., etc. : presented to Parliament / by W. Thwaites. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
16/98 page 10
![this did not deter the ruffians. No doubt Government will institute a searching investigation into the causes of these outbreaks; though it is easy to guess that if two or three daring villains once commence a resistance to authority in a case like this, the evil example will spread like wildfire among the dreadful crowd around them, ever prone to mis- chief and violence. The ritmost horror and alarm has been accasioned among the officials and others connected with the convict prison at Chatham, in consequence of a series of mutinous outbreaks by a portion of the convicts, amounting to several hundred of the most desperate characters, the behaviour and conduct of the prisoners concerned in the outbreaks being of a far more violent character than that which occurred at the mutiny a few weeks since. On the present occasion the convicts concerned in the first outbreak were all employed outside the prison on the occasion of the disturbance, and this, of course, rendered the situation of affairs the more alarming. In order to give a succinct narrative of the occurrence, it should be stated that of the thousand convicts belonging to the establish- ment at Chatham, several hundreds are daily employed in Chatham Dockyard, and a ]3arty of several hundred working on St. Mary's Island, adjoining the dockyard, whilst the remainder are employed in various ways on the roads and other Government works in the garrison. The party engaged in the first outbreak were those at work on St. Mary's Island, on which the whole of the occurrences took place. At the usual hour on Friday morning about 400 of the convicts were marched down to the island to commence work, about thirty warders, all well armed, being in charge of them. Most of the men employed on the island are purposely sent there to work on account of their bad character, in order to remove them from any associates they might form in the dock- yard or elsewhere, St. Mary's Island being altogether seckided. The convicts proceeded with their work all the morning until the hour for dinner. It is customary for about 300 of the men always to dine on the island, in a large building provided for that purpose, the remainder returning to the prison. The dinners of those who remain on the island are always sent to them, each convict being allowed for his dinner one pint of soup, a pound of potatoes, a certain quantity of meat, and six ounces of bread—a meal which is stated to be far better than that supplied to the unfortunate paupers in many of the workhouses. On Friday the convicts were in charge of a chief warder, named Burton, and on the soup being served out to the prisoners, many of them declared that it was not good enough for them, one of them dashing the contents of his basin into the face of Mr. Burton. This was the signal for a general uproar, and the contents of innumerable basins were thrown over the chief warder, who was drenched to the skin. The warders who were locked inside with 'the convicts in vain endeavoured to restore order, but the ringleaders threatened to murder them if they attempted to interfere, and then com- menced smashing the windows and throwing their cups and tins about. They also commenced tearmg up the tables and stools and armed them- selves with the fragments, at the same time hooting and yelling in the most horrible manner. One of the convicts, who goes by the name of Bassett, mounted a table and harangued his feUow-prisoners in violent](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21081062_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
