Catalogue description Medical and surgical journal of the female convict ship Competitor for 31May to 20...

Medical and surgical journal of the female convict ship Competitor for 31May to 20 October 1828 by Thomas Hunter, surgeon, during which time the said ship was employed on a voyage from England to New South Wales.

Folio 1: Eliza Norman, aged 23, Convict; disease or hurt, synocha, attended with biliary obstruction. Put on sick list, 31 May 1828, at Woolwich. Discharged cured, 4 June 1828.

Folio 2: Mary Merritt, aged 50, Convict; disease or hurt, Pleuritis. Put on sick list, 9 June 1828, at Woolwich. Discharged cured, 14 June 1828.

Folios 2-3: Sophia Shepperd, aged 27, Convict; disease or hurt, pseudo syphilis. Put on sick list, 10 June 1828, at Woolwich. Discharged cured, 25 July 1828. Affected with pains in her limbs and pustular ulcerations and copper coloured blotches above the ankles. Had course of mercury three times in the last twelve months, so the surgeon thought it inadvisable to use it again. On arrival at Sydney she was able to go out to service in a gentleman’s family.

Folios 4-5: Thomas Hayley, aged 5, son of Mary Hayley [Hayley], Convict; disease or hurt, injury of the head, from falling down the main hatchway and hitting his head against a water cask. Put on sick list, 13 June 1828, at anchor in the [Oaze] channel. Discharged cured, 22 July 1828. He fell about ten feet and had a wound about an inch in length along all of which the right parietal bone was denuded.

Folios 5-6: Diana Stanford, aged 26, Convict; disease or hurt, febris intermittens. Put on sick list, 25 June 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 2 July 1828.

Folio 6: Ann Lee, aged 21, Convict; disease or hurt, synocha. Put on sick list, 26 June 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 3 July 1828.

Folio 7: Ellen Pearce, aged 21; disease or hurt, synocha. Put on sick list, 30 June 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 6 July 1828.

Folios 7-8: Harriet Gilbert, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, cynanche tonsillaris. Put on sick list, 1 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 6 July 1828.

Folios 8-9: Mary Hayly, aged 27, Convict; disease or hurt, obstipatis. Put on sick list, 2 July, at sea. Discharged cured, 13 July. Insisted that her bowels had not moved more than three times in the last month.

Folio 9: Elizabeth Mortimer, aged 33, Convict; disease or hurt, synocha. Put on sick list, 3 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 27 July 1828.

Folio 10: Elizabeth Watts, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, synocha. Put on sick list, 3 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 14 July 1828.

Folio 10: Maria Smith, aged 22, Convict; disease or hurt, colica. Put on sick list, 8 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 24 July 1828.

Folios 10-11: Elizabeth Cooper, aged 36, Convict; disease or hurt, asthenia, induced by excessive sea sickness. Put on sick list, 13 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 25 July 1828. And again, put on sick list, 1 October. Discharged cured, 6 October. She was reported to be dying and when the surgeon examined her he found 'her countenance expressive of the utmost debility, her skin cold and moist, hardly any pulsation at the wrist... great oppression about the praecordia, and difficulty of breathing, extremities cold'.

Folio 11: Mary Woodcock, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, cynanche tonsillaris. Put on sick list, 19 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 24 July 1828.

Folios 12-14: Jane Burt, aged 24, Convict; disease or hurt, hepatitis. Put on sick list, 22 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 28 August 1828.

Folios 14-15: Eliza Collins, aged 19, Convict; disease or hurt, obstipatis. Put on sick list, 24 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 4 August 1828.

Folio 15: Ann Jarvis, aged 30; disease or hurt, synocha. Put on sick list, 24 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 4 August 1828.

Folios 15-16: Harriet Gilbert, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, cynanche paroticlea. Put on sick list, 30 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 9 August 1828.

Folios 16-17: Harriet Williams, aged 24; disease or hurt, contusion of the right eye and cheek. Put on sick list, 31 July 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 7 August 1828. Was struck by the end of a spar being used for hauling in salt water while seated on the leeside of the quarter deck. The blow was oblique or would have been fatal.

Folios 17-18: Elizabeth Austin, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, pneumonia. Put on sick list, 7 August 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 17 August 1828. Was exposed to cold and moisture and afterwards affected with tightness of breathing attended with cough.

Folios 18-19: Elizabeth Rhodes, aged 37; disease or hurt, opthalmia. Put on sick list, 27 August 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 1 August 1828.

Folios 19-21: Ann Walter, aged 52; disease or hurt, diarrhoea biliosa. Put on sick list, 5 September 1828, at sea. Discharged cured, 16 September 1828.

Folios 21-23 Jane Burt, aged 24, Convict; disease or hurt, hepatitis. Put on sick list, 23 September 1828, at sea. Discharged to the hospital at Sydney, 14 October 1828. Had been cured of a previous attack on 27 August 1828 but had not been sufficiently careful during the very severe weather the ship experienced and caught cold. On 25 September 1828 she was accused of theft by one of the other prisoners and her symptoms became worse.

Folio 24: Blank.

Folio 25: Abstract of the preceding journal, being a summary of all the cases contained therein. Nosologically arranged. Diseases are listed by class, then order and section. Dates put on the list and discharged are given for each case and the cases are numbered. There are 23 cases in all, no deaths but one sent to the hospital.

Folio 26: Surgeon's general remarks. The prisoners were generally healthy, there were no attacks of dysentery, scurvy or fevers of an infectious kind. Jane Burt's was the only case of importance, she suffered 'the most determined visceral inflammation' the surgeon ever witnessed. From the Cape of Good Hope until the coast of New Holland hard gales constantly kept the Competitor shipping large quantities of water, making the lower deck very uncomfortable. Fires were kept burning constantly and the ventilating stove used. The surgeon found 'the long range of funnel' supplied to prison ships extremely useful and moved it from one side to another of the prison, on alternate days, to distribute the warmth. Signed, Thomas Hunter, Surgeon and Superintendent Sydney, New South Wales, 20 October 1828.