voyage, the navigation of convict
vessels has been fortunate: for thirty years no vessel had been lost.
The merchant ships met with the average of accidents; but the transports
were supposed, by the curious, to be under a peculiar destiny. They
attributed their safe passage to the force of the proverb, which implies
that the trident of Neptune is powerless against the heritage of the
executioner.

A succession of calamities, in the navigation of convict vessels,
changed the aspect of their fortune, and filled all classes with
commiseration: such was the wreck of the _Amphitrite_, in 1833, which
struck on the coast of Bologne. That vessel was in a position of great
danger, and the French pilot, Heuret, endeavoured to warn, in time to
save; but the risk of the usual reward, it is said, the surgeon was
unwilling to incur; and the captain, not less indisposed to forfeit his
bond, which included a penalty for every prisoner who might escape.
Their hesitation was fatal to themselves: the women were not permitted
to come on deck, or to avail themselves of the opportunity to save their
lives. These unfortunate females, to the number of 103, with their
children, were drowned; and their naked corpses, floating to the coast
of France, exhibited an appalling spectacle. The French and English
mingled their tears, as they beheld the bodies strewed along the
beach--some models of feminine beauty, others disfigured by the recent
concussions; among the rest, a young mother, with her child clasped in
her arms. Nor does it appear that the instructions of the government had
ever foreseen or provided for such dangers, or authorised the temporary
release of prisoners, when the situation of the ship might require their
liberation.

The wreck of the _George the Third_, in April, 1835, excited the most
painful sensations. Having fifty-three persons on the sick list,
occasioned by a deficiency of proper food, Captain Moxley endeavoured to
reach Hobart Town through D'Entrecasteaux's Channel: while running at an
easy rate, and in smooth water, the leadsman cried out, "a quarter less
four:" that instant the vessel struck; at first gently, then heavily,
and in less than ten minutes she was a perfect wreck. The prisoners were
below, imploring release: they rushed to the hatchway, where a
corporal's guard was armed to repress them: they forced through the
bars, and a few were seen to escape; the soldiers, ordered to resist
their egress, then fired.