OCR Text |
Show Idling Back from the Past of Crime and Torture 1 1 8?& SvStfiKKfH R-rr t a ttt pvp QTi?vi?MnM - ture May Visit America Next F py rAUL EVE STEVENSON .SntniTir cwright, 1010. by the New York iir- 'if 3fr it The Prison Ship Success as She Appeared One Hundred Years Ago. U i sapping isj..lt I i 1 bi&jjf'full ripped sailing ship that over sailor! the sens her statclincss could deserve tho epithet of harpy rfilho deep, however sordid and abject were- her life. Nothing could deprive her of her pristine Mfc- of slonder spars and snowy royals, and the mind 's 'Tcftn follow her across the Trades, 'hcclinp slightly ifnjue balmy wind makes love to her. ifStttt that valiant old lull ripper, the Success falls as 2fy under thp ban of opprobrium as an old. timo, Pjtt'jnmmer possibly can. The Success may visit Arshorca of the United Stares during tlieu.cominp jisrwncr, and if sho docs slio will furnish persons with $$ratulatory thoughts that thoy did not live in tho tiqs that brought ill but dishonor ou the brave old Hn Indiaman. ?Mlnd East Judiaman she veritably is in more ways 0 jiiVonc, or not alono did she tread the China seas ad $ic earninp of hor daily bread, but she was buili xt( the famous seaport of Moulmcin, where the obi te jaa looks eastward to the sea and tho Burma h fjaro supposed to be always thinkiup of yon. But . ; icr mid-life (ho Success turned nsido from her gaut trade in tea and spices, and for year on year e?'!piven over to the harboriup of convicts in Ausl.ra-fAnd Ausl.ra-fAnd so she sank low from her hiph estate and ipSit in the midst of clamor and riot, a prison ship ySjc niassne wooden walls re-echoed Avilh the ini- tiKons 'or'ure( unfortunates. ca4p hundred and twent- years have passed since r&jjBlout old ship left the ways in the Moulmcin yard, n.'jdniosl wondreful specimen of naval architecture 'nciHprobably ever spread her canvas to the breeze. ljjytual size -she is not; preat, as ships po in those lotfl' measuring only o'AO pross tons. "But she was ije3"ike a ship of the line and her sides at the bilges vcrjFtu' fC(-'t six inches thick. Thirty inches of solid. ctifi$oi-vinp eastern teak, and her breast hooks were tnttf;"0 tnmks of tho redwoods. Ou her quarter gal-ntW"0'01'? gal-ntW"0'01'? spread exquisite, carvings, the fruits of (he. Tag Burmese artists, and pilded shields and ofwP. "elds of chiselled wonders shone aloup her -"arks. The polden balls that crowned hev trucks "(iijUiod in the tropic sun and (ho figurehead of a licHn smiled down at the blue sea. fcrfv1"? .Years this wonderful ship transported tea enjtvUima to the British Isles, and as the Eastern WfiR,wcrc in hoso days infested with pirates of the deli&Ioodthirsly flort tn Success .was pierced for ioniiy S"s. the evidences of which still mav' 'jjnnd about hor decks. 7t called for stout hearts ?adtfjl lnos turquoise sens that suddenly would d nfciw,h Inla3 miscreants, and many a running Graft"0, olu Success endured, as with 'wetted sails apjAmrtod tho sluppisb monsoon breeze. rttJIy'c"C easieru pirates tho only foes the vessel nadlf f.' hev hull to this day holds shot marks from all!nch privateer in the Bay of Bengal in 1S15". while . ttW.Puko Purvoycd the slow destruction of'Napo-while of'Napo-while a great dent in Iho mainmast the original -JSrfrSi Vrt,",?ss 10 1,10 ranrkmanship of the gun-jot gun-jot 1-ort William at Calcutta. There was a mutiny Jfc, crow and a confusion of sipnals, and in the little jnrdment troni the! tort one man was killed and """I were wounded. "w disgrace Comes to Her. M sop" to have marked the beginning of. her lip ol hte, for in S21) the Success was chartered Bniish Adniirally fo carry settlers to Western !l Vr-' ' lfrreu' livelihood from the .-onvev-f32i.n ?T.r ,-",utTK o.ld ,tuc-. grateful condinicn'ts Sei ibpicc 'ns. Shortly afterward, though, she n l,rafli"-', bnt V 1817 averted B&:'Si.cu-,cr t"1?"-', and carried emigrants from P,e4loitn 0uVJrt, 'Vlclai,le' AstrnliSn This life hn,r? i ntoU 'i sh,Q Jescendcd further and car- . i ml' t,l.,I?.V of our California gold stam- 'W$o iff Jl Sai-n', only to return once 'S&o Q'd. wild life of Auslrali:,- ;lml when she -riselT air to prevent their dying on the authorities' hands or whether they were nowly freed convicts, history does not divulge. If the latter, it is reasonable to imagino that they were moro careful in tho future,, for what tho interior of tho aucccss must have been staggers tho imagination. Most of tho cells wero devoid of light, no provision of any sort being made for it. n theso caves many prisoners lost their sight forever. After months, possibly pos-sibly yoars of total darkness, their eyes, like those of fho" sightless fish in the abysjns of the, Main moth cave, went out, and when tho sun's lipht ouco moro fit ruck their faces there came no answering gush of joy. Such was the number of desperate outlaws in the colonies that .the Success never wanted for a complement com-plement of visitors, and at times thoy overran tho ''accommodations." A platform was accordingly built ' alhwartships, considcrablj' elevnieil, so as to command a full view of the vessel, which was paced day and night b' sentries with orders to open fire on any prisoner pris-oner who attempted to escape, aud the grim record is Low -flittered Melbourne 'harbor on May 1S52, she ended iorcver her caroer as a merchant 'ship. As wooden , vessels 'go sho was then approaching old age, -having attained the antiquity of upward of sixtv years, .but. so sound and scathlcss were her timbers and Planking that when she finally lav moored fore and alt at Melbourne she was sixty years young, with less than hair of her life behind her, and sho is nearlv as sound today as when she left the ways in Moul-mem Moul-mem Wrinkled, perhaps, .but still game and cheerful in soul, tho old ship cherishes her youthful grace, which. Jf all goes well, she will exhibit to us in a few short months. ,0h?n tho Success anchored in Melbourne harbor, in I.Vjl, the gold mama had .-just developed in Australia. Men wore gold mad. Thoy deserted their homes and families ju quest of tho soft, sulphur-colored uuggets that nestled in the sands of Ballnrnt. Murder and !1irso,T,,,,oteSi,tR5tnor ?ml "mnn life was cheap and doubtful. Therefore whon tho Success had let o her mudhooks in the harbor nil hands voted lo aliaudon ship; so master, men and passengers immediately and permanently forsook her for the golden ernvel of the uplands. Dcsertod thus perhaps the old ship was not so much to blame .lor her impending fall, for she was offered by her owners tor sale to tho highest bidder, which happened to be the government of Victoria. Australia. -Jails wore scarce intttlie diggings, Wnd the wildest sons oi moil answered the call of the gold, and bullets wero bo.ter and quicker than words. So tho old Success was bought by the colonial government, and filled with cells 1 roin keel to deck. -Sovoiih two of Ihein were Those Turquoise Seas That Suddenly Would Swarm with Malay : Miscreants built into the ship, with accommodations for 120 convicts. con-victs. J he galley was shifted from amidships to the lorecastle head and flanked on either side bv a sinister sen try box. whence, from day to da-, violent guests might be conveniently picked off. Besides these precautions twentv-scven warders wero installed, none .being chosen because of his gcntlo teni-pratuent. teni-pratuent. Vertical iron bidders wore by an error erected, erect-ed, connecting the upper and lower decks, for prisoners were never able to make uso of them by reason of (he weight, of their fetters. When necessity arose, which was presumably uot particularly frequent, the convicts wore hoisted on deck in squads of fivo or six by means of a winch which, being interpreted, means that a' batch of men were linked together, an iron hook was snapped under tho chain that bound t hem and thev were "broken out ' of the hold like ordinary cargo. " Whether these were prisoners hoisted into the fresh handed down that "no prisoner was ever known to ctl'cct his escape." Some Prightful Tortures. Methods of punishment were apparently ingenious in the Australian colouios in the fifties. Refractory convicts were not likely to rcneat their offences against the prison rules, although one of the corrections must have had a salutaiy result that of the compulsory bath. This would not appear in tho light of a dreaded penance, yet it is mentioned among the common incth-ods incth-ods of reducing criminals to a sense of the importance of their jailers. For those among the convicts who insisted ou free speech tho gap was provided, and the cat-o"-ninc tails always slept with one oyc open, and she had an intensely in-tensely vigorous life for every tail. Then there was a ball of iron weighing more than seventy pounds that was shackled to a prisoner's iron waist belt by a ihick chain, the man being compelled to perform certain duties while thus inflicted. Metal collars fitted around (ho neck lent an aspect of an organ man's monkey to soma unfortunates, who pursued their enforced vocations voca-tions under this unpleasant handicap. Some of these iron collars were spiked, and there is every reason to credit the belief that the Iron Virgin persuaded many recalcitrants to reform the. hollow figure of a woman, into which a man was thrust, when the form was clamped down over him. 1 The corner cells were known as the "black holes,'' " ' and prisoners condemned to their torluro were so chained to the walls as to make il impossible either to stand or to lio flat. 1'or many years tho Success fulfilled ful-filled her gloomy and repellant 'mission, and at some ; time or 'other she was the abiding place of most of the notorious criminals of the Australian gold digging-;. The ship even to this day is hung with dismal niys- -"-J- iieram no. All Kiguta JCcserved. H terii-5. with man killing and ever' atrocity that is imaginable in tho way of satanic punishments. Finally, so conspicuous did sho become, so evil an odor arose M from tho nniyomc cells,, that public sentiment in Ans- tralia turned-against her. The convicts wero trans- H ferrcd ashore to prisons properly constructed, aud in H .IS57, tho year of the Indian mutiny, the Success was transformed into a prison for refractory seamen. Matters were conducted in a much "higher aud moro humane manner than before, and for thrce j'cars Bhol H served us a sailors' jnil, when she was again altered,' H this time into a woman's prison, and as such sho was' IH employed at Sandridge for eight years. In 1SC0 we find another shift of wind aud sho becomes a boys' re- IH fonnatory, which ended her career of ignominy, for H although' she was subsequently used as a store hulk H by the Australian government, surely it 5s no disgraco to act as a warehouse, for the people. This seemed at one time to indicate the lifting o the curtain ou the final act. of tho old ship's dnimatin H life and that the only work that remained for her to H do ou earth was the hoarding of stores and provisions. H Xo one ever supposed that there still breathed within her (ho old-time ambitions for a life of liberty in tho trade winds and tho .-jewelled tropical liglit. But they did not know how youthful she really was until sho was bought bv priva'te capital and, greatly against tho sentiment of "Australians in general, she was fitted up for exhibition purposes and restored to her former cs-tate cs-tate as a convict ship. Soon afterward she was scuttled and sunk in byd-nev byd-nev harbor by malicious persons, but was raised, and 1 in lSOo the old ship once more faced the open sea aud freedom. Under- hor own sail, this shy maid of 10o vears started for Loudon around the stormy Horn, once more a willing bride of the gray and hoary sea. Not a timber started during the passage of 1 Go days, though she rolled deep in tho long arms of the southern Show Ship Now. Since then, or for a matter of fifteen years, she has wandered from port to port in the British Isles for the purpose of exhibition. That she is yet sound enough to cross the Atlantic no one doubts, for her teak hull is harder than oak now from the curing process of more than a century, and if she comes to New York her oddly-wrought llenry "VTII stern, with its square windows and great freebonrd, is certain lo attract all lovers of old-fashioucd ships. Below she will be a model of what she -was in tho convict days of yore. More than that, she will hold many prisoners in captivity, though they will uot live and breathe; for it is proposed to exhibit hpr here, as in Kngland. with waxen efligics of convicts chained in her bunks lo demonstrate most effectively just what these human beings suffered. En cell No. (Jl, on the middle deck, we will be able to refresh ourselves with iho image nf Frank Gardiner. a famous Australian bushranger, who served several vears hi ,thc old -ship and who. having been pardoned, went to San Francisco and conducted a thriving liquor jH Then there will be a likeness of Inspector General Price, who so enshrined himself in the hearts of tho 1 convicts that they could uot bear tho thought of sen-aration. sen-aration. so they killed him with some shovels in March, George Lovelace will also be there. JJc was trans- IH ported from England for joining a trade union in vio- IH latiou of the law of 1S54, but was pardoned after serv- tH ing loss than half of his sentence of soven years. IH Theso three conspicuous former inmates of the ship 1 will be exhibited in wax, together v.-ith two score or more of other figures, each illustrating in some man- jH ner life on the Success in the days of her abasement. Visitors will view also flic instruments of torture that wero in actual use half a centurj- ago and ponder nn the upward trend of humanity sinco those anciont All things concerned, this wonderful maid of the sea is pretty certain lo attract her share of attention next summor when sho glides in through tho Narrows ;md drops her n'nehor in the lower bay. lror shc is H I he last of the ancient prison ships, the final remaining link that unites these days of illumination with the raw red days of the past. jJ |