Outrages in Emigrant Ships.

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Document ID 9502060
Date 15-02-1850
Document Type Official Documents
Archive Queen's University, Belfast
Citation Outrages in Emigrant Ships.;Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Feb.15, 1850, Series 3, Vol. CVIII, pp. 809-813; CMSIED 9502060
22656
 HOUSE OF LORDS,
   Friday, February 15, 1850.

OUTRAGES IN EMIGRANT SHIPS.
The EARL of MOUNTCASHELL, in
pursuance of the notice which he had
given, rose to inquire whether the Government
had received any communications
relative to the ill-treatment of the emigrants
on board the bark Indian, destined
for Port Adelaide, South Australia? He
had seen - as he had no doubt many of
their Lordships had seen - in the Morning
Post a statement regarding this emigrant
vessel, which, in the course of last year,
had sailed, with 182 emigrants on board,
to Australia. Amongst those emigrants
were married, and many unmarried, women.
It appeared that the treatment to
which these women were exposed during
the voyage was of so gross and scandalous
a character, that, on their arrival at Adelaide,
their friends called, by advertisement,
a public meeting, at which a great
number of emigrants themselves were
present. The chairman stated generally to
the meeting the gross and shameful usage
which the emigrants, particularly the females,
had experienced, owing to the remissiveness
of the captain, and the disgrace-ful
conduct of the second mate, the surgeon,
and the steward, by whom the
vessel had been converted into a sink of
iniquity worse than any brothel in London.
The second mate, in his drunken fits, had
forced himself into the cabins of the female
passengers, and had committed the most
revolting debaucheries with those who
admitted, and had been guilty of great
cruelty and violence towards those who
stood firm against, his advances. One
innocent young woman, who resisted his
proposals, and complained of his conduct
to the captain, was taken upon deck, and
buckets of water were thrown upon her.
One of the male passengers, who stood up
in her defence, was grossly insulted. Violence
was exhibited towards all who stood
up for her protection; and the captain informed
her that, if she made a second complaint
of the conduct of his officers, she
should be placed in confinement. The
only officer on board the ship who acted in
a proper and becoming manner was Mr. Davis,
the first mate; all the rest acted
most shamefully. He called the attention
of Her Majesty's Ministers to these
outrageous transactions, because it was very
important that some measures should be
adopted to prevent the recurrance of them.
He had been informed that a society had
been recently established in London, by
benevolent individuals, for the purpose of
aiding distressed women to emigrate to
our colonies. Now, after the publication
of such a statement as that of which he
had given their Lordships the substance,
was it likely that any virtuous and well-
conducted woman would trust herself on
board of a vessel if she was not sure of
protection? He was sorry to say that
this was not an isolated case, for he had
heard of other vessels where similar profligacy
had prevailed, although the outrageous
conduct of the officers and crew
had not been made public. Besides the
reasons which he had already mentioned,
there was another which induced him to
bring this abominable state of things under
the notice of Parliament. During the
course of last summer, the Poor Law
Commissioners in England and Ireland had
sent to the different boards of guardians in
both countries circulars inquiring whether
they had, in their respective districts, any
poor, but well-conducted, girls who were
willing to emigrate. Many such young
women were selected in both countries,
and several from the union with which he
was connected. Now, if there were to be
no protection offered to these friendless
young women, either by the captain, or
the mates, or the other officers of the emigrant
vessels in which they had embarked;
and if the matron were to be reduced to a
mere cypher, and left without any power,
it must be productive of the greatest evil.
It also appeared, from statements made at
the meeting at Adelaide, that, in contravention
of the express provisions of the
Passenger's Acts, spirits had been publicly
sold on board of this vessel, though there
was a heavy penalty affixed to every distinct
offence of that sort; and that it was
in and after the drunken revelries of the
officers that these atrocious assaults on
unprotected women were generally attempted.
In contravention of another provision of
the same Act, it appeared that the proper
quantity of water and of food allotted to
each passenger, had been systematically
kept from them; and that, in consequence,
they had been obliged to live on short
commons during the greater part of their long
voyage. Memorials on this subject, he
understood, had been sent both to the
noble Secretary for the Colonies, and to
his right hon. relative the Secretary for
the Home Department. He wished to
know whether those memorials had been
received, and, if so, what were the steps
which Government intended to take upon
them?
EARL GREY, in reply to the question
of the noble Earl, said, that no official
communication on this subject had yet been
received by Her Majesty's Government.
In a newspaper, however, from the colony,
which had been recently received in this
country overland from India, and of a later
date than the last official despatches, he
had seen an account of the outrages to
which the noble Earl had referred. From
that newspaper it appeared that allegations
of the existence of very serious abuses on
board of this emigrant vessel had been
preferred at a public meeting in the colony.
Those allegations were now under the
investigate of the colonial government, and he
could assure the noble Earl that it
would be strictly carried on not only by the
colonial government but by the Government
at home; and that, if abuses had
taken place, those who had been guilty of
them had incurred, and should be made
subject to, the severest penalties of the
law. Not only were the officers of the
vessel liable to severe penalties under the
Passenger's Acts for any abuses committed
during the voyage, but the shipowners also
would not escape from them. The Emigration
Commissioners, by virtue of the
contracts which they had made with the
shipowners, were entitled to hold back a
large portion of the passage-money paid
for these emigrants in case any abuses
took place on board their vessels. He
informed their Lordships that whenever
abuses had taken place, the Emigration
Commissioners had not hesitated to exercise
the power vested in them. When the
noble Earl stated that the present was not
a solitary case of abuse, but that there
were many others which had not come before
the Public, he appeared to him (Earl
Grey) to be, if not wholly uninformed, at
least very nearly so. He (Earl Grey)
appealed to those noble Lords who had read
the papers recently laid on the table on the
subject of emigration, whether they did
not contain satisfactory proofs both of the
pains and of the success with which the
Emigration Commissioners had exerted
themselves to check abuses of this kind.
He need not say that cases of abuse must
sometimes occur; but he could assure the
noble Earl that, whenever they did occur,
they should not, as far as he (Earl Grey)
was concerned, pass unpunished. For the
conduct of the officers of the ship the
Emigration Commissioners were not responsible,
for the officers were selected by the
shipowners; but the Commissioners had
this check upon the shipowners, that they
could deprive them of a large portion of the
passage-money, in case they appointed
officers who either committed themselves
or sanctioned abuses in others. In one
case, he had himself directed the Emigration
Commissioners to enforce the whole
amount of the forfeiture on the shipowners,
and the Emigration Commissioners had in
consequence withheld from them œ500., to
which they would have been otherwise
entitled. The surgeon of the vessel was
under the control of the Commissioners;
but, as no great remuneration was offered
to the surgeons of emigrant vessels, there
was some difficulty in getting competent
persons to act in that capacity. In a great
majority of cases, however, the surgeons
had performed their duty very admirably.
In the present case, the surgeon had been
very hastily appointed, in consequence of
a very serious illness which had suddenly
attacked the surgeon previously appointed.
[The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL: Mr. Sandford?]
Yes, and looking at the testimonials
upon which he had received his appointment,
he must say that they were sufficiently
strong to justify the Emigration
Commissioners in sanctioning it. The
noble Earl had referred to other instances
of abuse which, he alleged, had occurred
in the case of female emigrants.
Generally speaking, the female
emigrants from Ireland had turned out
well; but in one case great abuses had
occurred, not indeed on the part of the
officers of the vessel which carried them
out, but in consequence of the gross deceit
which had been practised on the
Emigration Commissioners by parties in
Ireland as to the character of the women
embarked. The poor-law guardians, for
some reason or other, allowed other women,
especially women from the town of Belfast,
to be sent on board instead of those of whose
good character they had given testimonials.
This was almost the only case of
abuse with which he was acquainted. As
soon as the information reached him, he
took care that more caution should be
exercised by the authorities in Ireland. He
readily admitted to the noble Earl that in
conducting emigration to so distant a
quarter of the globe, the difficulty of
guarding against abuses was very great; but,
on the other hand, he assured him that no
effort had been, and that no effort would
be, spared to guard against them. So far
as the Emigration Commissioners were
concerned, emigration was conducted with
as little abuse as possible.
   The EARL OF MOUNTCASHEL said,
that he was very glad to hear the state-
ment of the noble Earl, which he thought
would produce the most beneficial results.
      Subject at an end.