Catalogue description Medical and Surgical journal of His Majesty's convict ship [ Jupiter ] for 24 December...

Medical and Surgical journal of His Majesty's convict ship [Jupiter] for 24 December 1832 to [1] June 1833 by A Ferguson, Surgeon, during which time the said ship was employed [in] a passage [to Van Diemen's Land]. [The journal is in a very fragile condition and is illegible in parts].

Folio 1: [Robert] Casson, aged 25; disease or hurt, gonorrhoea. Put on sick list, 27 December 1832.

Folio 1: Jonathan Wetherspoon, aged 48; disease or hurt, cholera. Put on sick list, 28 December 1832, in the River. Removed to the cholera hospital ship at Woolwich.

Folios 1-2: J Mapps, aged 23; disease or hurt, cholera. Put on sick list, 28 December 1832, in the River. Removed to the cholera hospital ship at Woolwich, where he died a few days later of consecutive fever.

Folio 2: William Wright, aged [30], Convict; disease or hurt, diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 27 December 1832, in the River. Discharged, 9 January 1833.

Folios 2-3: Jonathan Rance, aged 17, Convict; disease or hurt, diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 15 January 1833, at sea. Discharged, 31 January 1833.

Folio 3: List of convicts affected with diarrhoea in January 1833. William Johnson, Convict; James Morrison, aged 17, Convict; W [Hearne], aged 19, Convict; William Williams, aged 31, Convict; Thomas Williams, aged 29, Convict; J Stocks, aged 26, Convict; J Knight, aged 21, Convict; T Belcher, aged 41, Convict; [I] Studley, aged 21, Convict; [Alexander Asson], aged 21, Convict; Thomas Rigley, aged 35, Convict; William Price, aged 23, Convict; Aaron Jones, aged 17, Convict; [...Hoskins], aged 19, Convict; J Smith, aged 19, Convict; R Hillier, aged 19, Convict; [S Parkhouse], aged 25, Convict; J Pollock, aged 19, Convict; R Elliot, aged 25, Convict; C Williams, aged 19, Convict; N [Llandfer], aged 37, Convict; Edward Smithers, aged 25, Convict; Jonathan Powell, aged 22, Convict; T Hudson, aged 20, Convict; C Evans aged 19, Convict; W Wagland, aged 25, Convict; D Thurman, aged 26, Convict; W Lawrence, aged 45, Convict; W Johnson, aged 28, Convict; [T] Almond, aged 23, Convict; [A] McCallum, aged 34, Convict; Richard Jones, aged 18, Convict; [...Hill], aged 20, Convict; Jonathan McQueen, aged 18, Convict; A Asson, aged 21, Convict; [Mr] Dent, aged 36, Convict; J Studley, aged 21, Convict.

Folios 3-5: David Green, aged 45, Convict; disease or hurt, flux. Put on sick list, 6 January 1833, in the Channel. Died, 28 January 1833. He had been ill with bowel complaints in Newgate prison and was very thin and emaciated when received on board the Jupiter.

Folios 5-7: Thomas Killeen, aged 26, Guard; disease or hurt, phthisis, not contracted on board. Put on sick list, 1 February 1833, at sea. Discharged to the Regimental Hospital of the 63rd Regiment, Hobart Town, 29 May 1833. He had suffered a cough and expectoration for 8 months but had no pain of breast until embarkation. He survived about 3 weeks after being sent to hospital and after death his lungs were found to be 'studded with tubercles in various stages of suppuration'.

Folios 7-8: William Quantrill, aged 26, Convict; disease or hurt, rheumatism. Put on sick list, 7 February 1833, at sea. Died, 21 February 1833. He had complained of pains for some days and had taken several doses of Dover’s Powders for the pain. On 15 February it is noted that he had caught a cold from his berth being near the main hatchway. He had suffered an attack of acute rheumatism from which he was not expected to recover the previous summer.

Folios 8-10: Samuel Aggett, aged 25, Convict; disease or hurt, flux. Put on sick list, 14 February 1833, at sea. Died, 10 March 1833.

Folios 11-13: William Price, aged 23, Convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 25 February 1833, at sea. Removed to Somerset Hospital, Cape Town, by order of His Excellency the Governor Sir Lowry Cole, 30 March 1833. He had a swelling of the integuments over the front of his right tibia where, 12 months earlier, he had been kicked by a horse. The swelling was covered in purple blotches and his gums had become spongy. He was given a hammock because his legs were extremely painful when accidentally touched by his bedfellows in his berth.

Folio 13: Richard Brown, aged 19, Convict; disease or hurt, colic. Put on sick list, 22 February 1833, at sea. Discharged, 12 March 1833. He was very feeble when discharged and it was a considerable time before he recovered his strength.

Folios 13-14: Thomas Hill, aged 20, Convict; disease or hurt, flux. Put on sick list, 23 February 1833, at sea. Discharged, 4 April 1833.

Folio 14: There were 28 cases of herpes and 16 of itch among the convicts in February 1833. The diseases appeared to have been brought from the hulks, particularly the Justitia.

Folio 14: Jonathan Edwards, aged 21, Convict; disease or hurt, pleurisy. Put on sick list, 11 March 1833, at sea. Discharged, 1 May 1833.

Folios 15-16: M Dent, aged 36, Convict; disease or hurt, flux. Put on sick list, [12] March 1833, at sea. Died, 21 March 1833. Suffered purging for two days and then was well until it returned on 17 March. Also had an inguinal hernia for which he wore a truss.

Folio 16: List of 4 convicts who suffered scurvy, symptoms including spongy, bleeding gums, nocturnal pains of the legs and, in one case, blotches. They were given preserved meats until arrival at Cape Town, where fresh food was given. J Studely, aged 21, Convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 19 March 1833, Discharged, 12 April 1833. T Almond, aged 23, Convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 19 March 1833. Discharged, 8 April 1833. J Ducks, aged 21, Convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 19 March 1833. Discharged, 6 April 1833. J Brooks, aged 44, convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 25 March 1833. Discharged, 12 April 1833.

Folios 16-17: Owen Owens, aged 31, Convict; disease or hurt, scurvy. Put on sick list, 20 March 1833, at sea. Removed to Somerset Hospital, Cape Town, by order of His Excellency the Governor Sir Lowry Cole, 30 March 1833.

Folios 17-18: Patrick Kean, aged [not recorded], Soldier of the Guard; disease or hurt, dysentery. Put on sick list, 2 April 1833, at Table Bay, Cape Town. Discharged, 17 April 1833.

Folio 18: Charles Thorpe, aged 35, Convict; disease or hurt, fever. Put on sick list, 30 March 1833, at Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope. Discharged to the Colonial Hospital, Hobart Town, 29 May 1833. 'Of a stout habit of body and much exposed to wet, being cook's assistant on deck'.

Folio 19: J Summer, aged 27, Convict; disease or hurt, fever. Put on sick list, 28 April 1833, at sea. Discharged to the Colonial Hospital, Hobart Town, 29 May 1833. He suffered very greatly from the fever, becoming delirious and incontinent. An abscess formed near his rectum and became gangrenous. He died a few days after being sent to the hospital.

Folio 20: Abstract of the preceding journal, being a summary of all the cases contained therein, nosologically arranged.

Folios 21-23: Surgeon's general remarks. Nearly illegible and apparently incomplete, the final surviving page is in pieces and there appear to have been other pages that have not survived. The convicts were in [tolerably] god health and [mostly] middle aged but weakened by diarrhoea. Cholera existed in both the hulks at Woolwich and was probably the source of the bowel complaints. Diarrhoea reappeared when they got south of the equator. The 'scale of diet' in male convict ships is too low and leads to debility.