Surry, later referred to as the Surrey, had an especially long career transporting convicts to Australia

Convicts in Australia

During the late 18th and 19th centuries, large numbers of convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government. One of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony to alleviate pressure on their...

. In 11 voyages, the most of any convict transport, she brought 2,177 convicts, male and female, and so became one of the best-known of the vessels that visited Australia. In all, she lost 51 men and one woman during her various passages, 46 of the men dying during her first and most notorious voyage in 1814 when she was under the command of James Patterson.

The high death toll on her first voyage led to a Board of Enquiry, which blamed neglect by the Master and Surgeon. Surry also served as a cargo vessel, particularly after her last convict trip, which ended when she reached Hobart on 11 August 1842.

Description

Surry was a square-rigged transport ship of 443 tons burthen bm

Builder's Old Measurement

Builder's Old Measurement is the method of calculating the size or cargo capacity of a ship used in England from approximately 1720 to 1849. It estimated the tonnage of a ship based on length and maximum beam...

. She had an overall length of 117 ft. 6 ins., a breadth above the gunwales of 29 ft. 6 ins, and a draught, when loaded, of 18 ft. She was copper-sheathed, and had quarter galleries, with a bust of Minerva

Minerva

Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...

 for a figurehead. When carrying prisoners and stores in 1816 she drew 16 ft. 3 ins. forward and 17 ft. 2 ins. aft, being down by the stern eleven inches. She carried a crew of thirty and was armed with fourteen cannons.

When the Surry was originally built at Harwich in 1811 she had two decks with a height between decks of 5 ft. 8 ins. However, about 1818, she must have received a major refit - the Shipping Registers after 1819 record the vessel as having three decks. She was owned by the well-known London firm of F. & C.F. Mangles. She was described for many years as a first-class ship built of first-class materials.

Masters

James Patterson was Master of Surry on her first convict voyage to Australia in 1814. He died of typhus after the ship arrived in Sydney. Thomas Raine was a junior officer on board Surry on this voyage but the epidemic of typhus that killed Paterson and a large number of the people aboard the vessel left him the only surviving officer. He sailed her back to England and subsequently commanded her for the next three voyages (1816, 1819, 1823).

Charles Kemp succeeded Raine for four voyages (1829, 1831, 1833, 1834). His successor, on the ninth and tenth voyages (1836, 1840), was George Sinclair. On the last voyage (1842) Henry Innott was Master.

First voyage: Typhus epidemic, quarantine and Board of Enquiry

On her first voyage transporting convicts from England, Surry sailed on 22 February 1814. She had embarked 200 male convicts, transported under the Plymouth Court's instruction dated 7 February 1814. After a stop in Rio de Janiero, she arrived in Sydney on 27 July 1814, accompanied by the Broxbornebury, which berthed next day. The voyage had taken 156 days.

A typhus epidemic on board Surry had killed 36 of the convicts, together with the Surgeon, First and Second Mates, Boatswain, two seamen and four of the guard. When Surry arrived, the authorities placed all the survivors under a strict quarantine in a camp on the "North Shore" of Port Jackson. Quarantine restrictions on the ship were lifted within a couple of weeks but the restrictions on the camp lasted a few more days. Broxbornebury suffered only two deaths amongst its 120 female convicts, which was a typical death toll for such a voyage.

The authorities established the quarantine camp in the immediate vicinity of what is now Jeffrey Street

Jeffrey Street

Jeffrey Street or Jeffreys Street, Kirribilli is famous as one of the most popular vantage points for views of the city of Sydney, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House...

, Kirribilli. Patterson, the master, died after arrival in Sydney and was buried in the vicinity, as were some others. The people in the camp remained there until 18 August. The convicts were then brought across to Sydney, inspected and distributed to work for free settlers.

The approximate location of the camp is known because a detailed 1840's map identifies the graves of "three typhoid victims and the attending physician". Surry was the first ship in Australia to be quarantined and Jeffrey Street was the first quarantine station in Australia. The graves in Jeffrey Street are believed to be the first burials of Europeans on the North Shore.

The egregiously high death toll led the authorities to convene a Board of Enquiry under the colony's Assistant Surgeon Redfern (himself once a transportee). The BOard's official report blamed the deaths on neglect by the Master and Surgeon.

Detail of subsequent voyages

Surrey sailed on for China on 8 November 1814, under Thomas Raine. Redfern's report to Governor Macquarie urged the appointment of naval surgeons to the transports, and the provision of an assistant surgeon. This report served to confirm the action by the Transport Commissioners in appointing naval surgeons to the transports, the first of whom, Joseph Arnold, sailed from England on Northampton on 2 January 1815.

In 1816, Surrey, still under Raine, sailed from London, departing Cork on 14 July and travelling via Rio on 26 September reached Sydney after 159 days on 20 December with 150 male prisoners. The markedly improved treatment for the prisoners under Raine and the presence of naval surgeon John F. Bayley were reflected in the safe arrival of all her convicts. Surrey returned to London via Batavia, Calcutta and Brazil.

Rebuilt, and now with three decks, Surrey departed Sheerness on 29 September 1818 and England on 17 October, sailing via Rio to reach Port Jackson on 4 March 1819, 156 days out from Sheerness. The surgeon was Matthew Anderson. Surrey had embarked 160 male prisoners, of whom three died on the voyage. She landed seven in Port Jackson and then she sailed. On 18 March, 152 days after leaving England, she reached Van Diemen's Land. Here she disembarked her remaining 150 prisoners. She returned to Port Jackson from the Derwent about 21 April with general cargo, remaining for three months before setting sail for London on 23 July. She took with her detachments of the 84th and 48th Regiments, and a cargo of hides, whale and seal oil, sealskins, wool, coconut oil and tan.

NSW's Governor Lachlan Macquarie

Lachlan Macquarie

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...

 sailed on Surrey to England on 15 February 1822.

Surrey departed Portsmouth on 5 October 1822, sailing directly to Port Sydney, which she reached on 4 March 1823, after a passage of 150 days. Surgeon Charles Linton took charge of the 160 male prisoners, with the records showing 157 landed in Sydney.

Now 461 tons and classed E1, Surrey departed London mastered by Charles Kemp and with Henry G Brock as surgeon on 11 August 1829. She arrived 125 days later in Hobart Town on 14 December. On this voyage she carried 200 male transportees, all but one of whom survived the voyage.

Mastered by Charles Kemp and with surgeon Colin A Browning, Surrey sailed from Portsmouth on 17 July 1831, and after a passage of 132 days reached Port Jackson on 26 November. All but one of the 200 male prisoners embarked survived the voyage.

Left the Downs on 4 December 1832 mastered by Charles Kemp, with David Wyse as surgeon. She arrived at Hobart Town 124 days later on 7 April 1833. Supposedly 204 male prisoners had been embarked, though despite one reported death en route, 204 apparently landed alive in Van Diemen's Land.

Now classed Æ1, Surrey exited Plymouth on 7 April 1834 and 132 days later reached Port Jackson on 17 August. Kemp was still her master but her surgeon was John Smith. On this voyage all 260 male prisoners safely reached Sydney.

Surrey sailed from Cork on 9 January 1836, taking 129 days to reach Port Jackson on 17 May. Her new master was George Sinclair, and her surgeon was Thomas Robertson. Five of the 229 male convicts aboard died on the voyage and two were re-landed; the remaining 224 reached Sydney safely.

Surrey arrived in Port Adelaide on 11 October 1838 from London. Migrants who travelled in this vessel formed a township on the road to Onkaparinga, South Australia, which they named Surryville.

Surrey sailed direct from the Downs on 2 April 1840 with 213 prisoners, all women. After a voyage of 102 days she reached Port Jackson on 13 July. Sinclair was still master, and accompanied on this voyage by surgeon Ed. Leah. One prisoner died on this voyage; the remainder landed safely in Sydney.

On her last voyage as a convict transport, Surrey sailed from Downs to Hobart Town via the Cape, departing 5 April 1842 and arriving 128 days later on 11 August. Her master now was Henry Naylor; her surgeon was John Tarn. Three of the 250 male prisoners embarked died during the passage. She delivered 247 to the authorities in Hobart Town.

Parsons (1988) reports that Surrey also conveyed convicts in 1848.

Art

The National Library of Australia holds a sepia engraving of Surry by Geoffrey Chapman Ingleton (1908–1998).

Notable Persons

Thomas Raine, the surviving junior officer on the first voyage, became one of the colony's better known masters. Between 1814 and 1836, Raine captained the Surrey for four voyages and was reported as evidently a man of advanced humanitarian outlook. In 1828 he established Australia's first whaling station, at Eden on the New South Wales south coast. He was also the first to ship Australian cedar overseas. He is buried in Camperdown Cemetery.

Notable passengers included:

• John Reynell
  John Reynell
  John Reynell was a South Australian winemaker.Reynell was born in 1809 from a Devonshire farming family. He arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia in 1838 and established his property about 20 kilometres south of the main settlement of Adelaide in the area that became known as McLaren...
  
  , who is thought to have established the first commercial vineyard and winery in South Australia. He planted vine cuttings in 1839 that he had bought at the Cape of Good Hope. Reynell employed a young man named Thomas Hardy, who also became a famed winemaker, to help him tend the vineyards. They became the largest wine producers in the McLaren Vale region.
• Robert Cross, one of the transportees on Surrey, who had been convicted of burglary in Yorkshire Assizes on 31 July 1813 and sentenced to death by hanging. The court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, which transportees generally served as fourteen years labour in Australia. Robert's wife Jane, with their three children, travelled as "Free Settlers" aboard the Broxbornebury, and commenced an interesting life association with fellow passenger John Horsley, though always in apparently amiable contact with Robert.