BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKEH. 211 



adoption of the system of paying a premium for each 

 person landed, thereby giving the contractors a direct 

 interest in caring for the health of the convicts, a great 

 improvement in their treatment was secured. During Gentleman's 

 the peace, however, the Government preferred using Magazine, 

 ships of the navy as transports, thus giving employment ^^'^*' 

 to officers and seamen whom it was undesirable to dis- 

 charge, in view of a probable renewal of hostilities, and 

 at the same time ensuring that the convicts would be 

 kept in a better state of order and cleanliness. The 

 vessels could also, on their return voyage, bring home 

 cargoes of timber for naval purposes at a small expense. 

 The ships best adapted for transports were those which 

 had been originally built for the East India Company, 

 and had been purchased into the King's service during 

 the war. The Calcutta was a ship of this class. She 

 was commanded by Captain Daniel Woodriii, who had 

 been in New South Wales in 1792 and 1793, and had 

 been so favourably impressed with the capabilities of the 

 settlement that^ when he received orders to take out a 

 transport, he petitioned Lord Hobart for a grant of land 

 for his sons, with the view of settling his whole family in 

 the colony. He had as his first lieutenant Lieutenant 

 Tuckey, a young Irishman of great energy and ability, 

 who afterwards wrote an account of the expedition, which 

 was published in 1805.* 



The Calcutta was to take the convicts and military, 

 but a tender was necessary to carry the stores for the 

 whole establishment. For this purpose the Transport 

 Office chartered the Ocean, a ship of 481 tons, belonging 



* " An Account of a Voyage to establish a Colony at Port Phillip 

 in Bass' Strait, on the South Coast of New South Wales, in H.M.S. 

 Calcutta." By Lieut. J. K, Tuckey. London, 1805, Lieutenant 

 James Kingston Tuckey was born in 1776, at Mallow, County Cork, 

 He entered the navy at an early age, and served with distinction in 

 the Eastern Archipelago and the Indian Seas, and afterwards in the 

 Red Sea. Broken in health, he was in 1802 appointed first lieutenant 

 of the Calcutta, and served during the voyage to Port Phillip, 

 returning to England in 1804 and publishing his book. In 1805 the 

 Calcutta, in convoying ships from St. Helena, was captured by the 

 French, after a gallant defence, in which Tuckey particularly distin- 

 guished himself. He remained in a French prison for nine years. 

 During his imprisonment in France he married a lady who was his 

 fellow prisoner. On his release in 1814 he was made commander, 

 and in 1816 ho obtained the command of an expedition to explore 

 the River Congo. The members of the expedition suffered terribly 

 from fever, which was fatal to 21 out of a total number of 56. Tuckey 

 was one of the victims, dying on 4 October, 1816. — "Narrative of 

 an Expedition to explore the River Zaire (Congo) in South Africa 

 in 1816." London, 1818. 



