A BERMUDAN CONNECTION
Of all British convict establishments, the one in Bermuda was arguably the most brutal. From 1824 to 1863 it was home to thousands of male convicts sentenced by British and Irish courts to transportation with hard labour for terms of up to 14 years. Of the 9000 convicts sent to Bermuda close to 2000 died.
Established by a British Government Order in Council in 1824 the Bermuda Convict Establishment was the responsibility of the Home Office until the late 1840s when it was transferred to the Colonial Office. Unlike other colonies established using convict labour, such as New South Wales or Van Diemen’s Land, the vast majority of convicts sentenced to Bermuda were not allowed to settle in Bermuda but were either returned to Britain or sent on to another colony such as Western Australia at the end of their sentence.
The primary purpose of the Bermuda establishment was strategic in that it provided essential and valuable labour to the Royal Engineers constructing the Royal Naval Dockyards and fortifications. Under the direction of these engineers and the guards, the convicts were employed as carpenters, quarrymen, stone cutters and carters, lime washers and labourers as well as sail makers, engine men, teachers, shoemakers, stewards, bookbinders, gas men, tailors, nurses, cooks, servants, washermen, pump operators, scavengers, gardeners, barbers, mat makers, rope makers, oakum pickers and painters.
In 1826 the British Government sent the Dromedary, an ex-naval store ship, to Bermuda to provide accommodation for convicts working on the dockyards and fortifications. The Dromedary had an Australian connection: as a convict transport it had undertaken several voyages to the Australian colonies, including ferrying Governor Lachlan Macquarie and the 73rd Regiment to New South Wales in 1809. Once in Bermuda, the Dromedary remained moored for nearly 40 years in the same part of the harbour, serving as hulk, store ship and kitchen for the thousands of male convicts and their guards.
In 1982 Chris Addams and Mike Davis obtained permission from the Bermudan Government to excavate the Dromedary hulk’s anchorage area. One of the major aims of the archaeological project was to augment historical research and find out what conditions were really like on the Bermudan convict hulks. Working in appalling conditions in almost zero visibility the divers used a suction dredge to peel away metres of sand, shell, coal and limestone deposits to uncover what is arguably the largest collection of 19th century convict material directly associated with convict life on the hulks.
Thousands of artefacts were recovered during the course of the excavations, including whale oil lamps, pewter mugs, engraved spoons, clay pipes, bottles, buttons, seals, coins, trinkets, charms, rings, beads, gaming pieces, religious items, knife handles and gaming boards. Careful plotting of the artefacts not only revealed what items were associated with the guard and what items were related to the convicts but also uncovered evidence of a large-scale shipboard economy based on the production of mementoes, curios and specimens. Beautifully made objects carved out of bone, shell, metal and stone were sold by their convict makers to the guards, visiting sailors and free settlers for tobacco, alcohol, food and money.
Over 500 artefacts of Bermudan convict hulk material has been brought to Australia for the first time, exclusively for this exhibition. Australia’s own history of convict hulks is the other focus of the exhibition.