- Author
- Nicholson, Ian
- Subjects
- Early warships, History - pre-Federation
- Tags
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- June 1999 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Of course the log of HMS Amphion quoted here does not reflect the horrors aboard the “Fever Ship”. Not even daily death rates appear to have been reported to the convoy escort, nor additional medical supplies or assistance sought. Typhoid had actually been carried onboard by convicts from the Portsmouth hulks and most deaths occurred after the convoy dispersed in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands. The ship received little relief when she called at the Cape of Good Hope in April and May, and finally arrived in Sydney in a dreadful state on 26 July 1799 with most of her surviving 205 prisoners requiring hospital treatment.
One incident aboard the transport early in the voyage which surely would have been reported to the warship had it been more serious or got out of hand was a mutinous plot, but it was “nipped in the bud” and suppressed vigorously.