prison hulks prior to transportation?

[dawnwas]

anyone know if there is a way of tracing which prison hulk prisoners lived on prior to transportation?
ie Arab II 1834 left portsmouth 26 feb 1834 heading for Hobart. would all of the convicts have been placed on the same Hulk previously and if so ,any idea how to find out which one?
dawn

[gennig]

Hi Dawn

The National Archives in England have the hulk records and no they wouldn't all be from the same hulk.

I you request the convict records from the Tas archives, you'll have a starting point.  From there you would need someone to go to the Archives and check the records for you.

Regards

Genni

[dawnwas]

Hi Genni..thankyou for the advice.
i have actually been lucky enough to gain copies of his records including a brief description, from Tasmania.i guess I will have to wait until I visit Tasmania myself to find out more.
I will now try to find out more from the National Archives in the UK re the hulk..thank's for that clue
dawn

[joan ransom]

Hi Dawn
I was able to find records at the Mitchell Library for prison hulks at Portsmouth. Copies were available. My convict was transported in 1837 and was easily found.
Have you looked at the surgeon's report for your convict's ship?
Joan

[dawnwas]

Hi Joan and thank's for the reply!
No I have not looked at the surgeons report for the ship,the Master was geo Binnie and the Surgeon was Colin.A.Browning.I had some great info from the Archives Offce Tasmania, but that was about 4 years ago now.
Did you gain access to the records at the Mitchell Library on line about the prison hulks at Portsmouth?...and my other question would be how did you get to read the Surgeons records? terminology is a bit confusing for me...I was told by the Archives office Tasmania that the indent of his voyage did not survive...would this have included the surgeons report I wonder?
Sorry to throw back all these questions Joan

[joan ransom]

Hello again Dawn.
I did my "hulk" research years ago without the aid of computers. I think it was part of the AJCP. [Australian Joint Copying Project]  At the time, I went to the Mitchell Library section, not the Family History section. It has probably changed now but you should easily find out. I read a film and was able to do my own copying. I was told that there is also information about victualling details for convicts on hulks, apparently someone was assigned to do this. If no family help was available, then the job was contracted out. I was unable to get information about this in Australia but maybe it is available elsewhere.
The surgeons reports were available at the Family History section at the M.L. Not all ships are included, yours no doubt is missing. Some reports are very good and detailed whilst others are patchy. The ones which I viewed, gave general information about the voyage and information about patients. The surgeon on the " England 2" in 1837 spoke about the traumatic state of the prisoners and gave some gruelling details of some of his treatments using mercury. My 13 year old GGGrandfather, who supposedly stole a dead rabbit from a cart in Brighton, managed to survive the voyage!
Hope this is of some help to you.

[dawnwas]

Hi Joan.
What an interesting read and yes it gave me a few tips.Looks like I will have to do some old fashioned research using paper and stamp! I will try to trace the surgeons report...I guess until I do a bit of digging I will not know what there may be.
The story of your 13 year old GGGrandfather was so sad,as we tend to forget how young some of them were.However it is nice to think that he did survive and hopefully had a better life......eventually.
Thankyou again Joan and good luck with your research.
dawn