Success (prison ship)
Encyclopedia
Success was a former Australian prison ship, built in 1840. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, she was converted into a floating museum displaying relics of the convict
era and purporting to represent the horrors of penal transportation
in Great Britain and the United States of America. After extensive world tours she was accidentally destroyed by fire while berthed in Lake Erie
near Cleveland, Ohio
in 1946.
s, 117 feet 3 inches x 26 feet 8 inches x 22 feet 5 inches depth of hold, built in Natmoo, Tenasserim, Burma in 1840. After initially trading around the Indian subcontinent, she was sold to London owners and made three voyages with emigrants to Australia during the 1840s, On one of these voyages, following the intervention of Caroline Chisholm
, Success sailed into Sydney town just the week before Christmas 1849 with families who had survived the Great Famine.
On 31 May 1852, Success arrived at Melbourne
and the crew deserted to the gold-fields, this being the height of the Victorian gold rush
. Due to an increase in crime, prisons were overflowing and the Government of Victoria purchased large sailing ships to be employed as prison hulks. These included Success, Deborah, Sacramento and President. In 1857 prisoners from Success murdered the Superintendent of Prisons John Price, the inspiration for the character Maurice Frere in Marcus Clarke
's novel For the Term of His Natural Life
.
In 1854 the ship was converted from a convict hulk into a stores vessel and anchored on the Yarra River
, where she remained for the next 36 years.
In 1890, Success was purchased by a group of entrepreneurs to be refitted as a museum ship to travel the world advertising the perceived horrors of the convict era. Although never a convict ship, Success was billed as one, her earlier history being amalgamated with those other ships of the same name including HMS Success
, which had been used in the original European settlement of Western Australia
. She was incorrectly promoted as the oldest ship afloat, ahead of the 1797 .
A former prisoner, bushranger Harry Power
, was employed as a guide for her first commercial season, in Sydney Harbour in 1891. The display was not a commercial success, and her owners promptly abandoned their business venture and scuttled the ship in Kerosene Bay.
The following year the sunken Success was sold to a second group of entrepreneurs and refloated. After a thorough refit she was taken on tour to Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and back to Sydney, then headed for England, arriving at Dungeness on 12 September 1894.
In 1912 she crossed the Atlantic and was exhibited as a convict museum along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America and later in ports on the Great Lakes
. In 1917 she was briefly returned to commercial service as a cargo carrier, but sank after being holed by ice. Refloated in 1918 she resumed her museum ship role and in 1933 was featured at the Chicago World Fair.
However, despite ongoing repairs the vessel was becoming rapidly unseaworthy. She was towed to Lake Erie Cove in Cleveland, Ohio to be dismantled and sold as scrap, but was destroyed by fire set by vandals while berthed alongside the Lake Erie Pier in Sandusky Ohio, on 4 July 1946.
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
era and purporting to represent the horrors of penal transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
in Great Britain and the United States of America. After extensive world tours she was accidentally destroyed by fire while berthed in Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
near Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
in 1946.
Origins
Success was a former merchant ship of 621 tonTon
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s, 117 feet 3 inches x 26 feet 8 inches x 22 feet 5 inches depth of hold, built in Natmoo, Tenasserim, Burma in 1840. After initially trading around the Indian subcontinent, she was sold to London owners and made three voyages with emigrants to Australia during the 1840s, On one of these voyages, following the intervention of Caroline Chisholm
Caroline Chisholm
Caroline Chisholm was a progressive 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her involvement with female immigrant welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the Calendar of saints of the Church of England...
, Success sailed into Sydney town just the week before Christmas 1849 with families who had survived the Great Famine.
On 31 May 1852, Success arrived at Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and the crew deserted to the gold-fields, this being the height of the Victorian gold rush
Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...
. Due to an increase in crime, prisons were overflowing and the Government of Victoria purchased large sailing ships to be employed as prison hulks. These included Success, Deborah, Sacramento and President. In 1857 prisoners from Success murdered the Superintendent of Prisons John Price, the inspiration for the character Maurice Frere in Marcus Clarke
Marcus Clarke
Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke was an Australian novelist and poet, best known for his novel For the Term of his Natural Life.- Biography :...
's novel For the Term of His Natural Life
For the Term of his Natural Life
For the Term of His Natural Life, written by Marcus Clarke, was published in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872 , appearing as a novel in 1874. It is the best known novelisation of life as a convict in early Australian history...
.
In 1854 the ship was converted from a convict hulk into a stores vessel and anchored on the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
, where she remained for the next 36 years.
Museum ship
In 1890, Success was purchased by a group of entrepreneurs to be refitted as a museum ship to travel the world advertising the perceived horrors of the convict era. Although never a convict ship, Success was billed as one, her earlier history being amalgamated with those other ships of the same name including HMS Success
HMS Success (1825)
HMS Success was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate wooden sailing ship notable for exploring Western Australia and the Swan River in 1827 as well as being one of the first ships to arrive at the fledgling Swan River Colony two years later, at which time she ran aground off Carnac Island.- History...
, which had been used in the original European settlement of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. She was incorrectly promoted as the oldest ship afloat, ahead of the 1797 .
A former prisoner, bushranger Harry Power
Harry Power
Harry Power was an Australian Bushranger. It is believed, by some, that Ned Kelly served as his accomplice while a teenager. -Early life:...
, was employed as a guide for her first commercial season, in Sydney Harbour in 1891. The display was not a commercial success, and her owners promptly abandoned their business venture and scuttled the ship in Kerosene Bay.
The following year the sunken Success was sold to a second group of entrepreneurs and refloated. After a thorough refit she was taken on tour to Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and back to Sydney, then headed for England, arriving at Dungeness on 12 September 1894.
In 1912 she crossed the Atlantic and was exhibited as a convict museum along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America and later in ports on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. In 1917 she was briefly returned to commercial service as a cargo carrier, but sank after being holed by ice. Refloated in 1918 she resumed her museum ship role and in 1933 was featured at the Chicago World Fair.
However, despite ongoing repairs the vessel was becoming rapidly unseaworthy. She was towed to Lake Erie Cove in Cleveland, Ohio to be dismantled and sold as scrap, but was destroyed by fire set by vandals while berthed alongside the Lake Erie Pier in Sandusky Ohio, on 4 July 1946.
Further reading
- The History of the Convict Ship Success, and Dramatic Story of Some of the Success Prisoners. A Vivid Fragment of Penal History. c1912. 150 pp.
- Bateson, Charles, The Convict Ships 1787-1868, Brown, Ferguson & Son, Glasgow, 1959
- Wardle, Arthur C., Official History of the "Convict" Ship, Sea Breezes magazine, Vol. 3 (New Series, 1947), p 73-74.
External links
- Success (prison ship) at FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- http://shipsuccess.comRich Norgard's page about the Success.
- http://shipsuccess.blogspot.comRich Norgard's blog about the Success.
- Success Article on the Success in Modern Mechanix (1930)
- Ship Wreck Page Ship Wrecks and Maritime Tales of the Lake Erie Coastal Trail
