"The case might have been dealt leniently with, but the laws were more harshly administered thirty years ago than now, and on my twenty-third birthday I found myself chained as a felon with thirty-seven other convicts in 'tween-decks of the bark Gloria Scott, bound for Australia."
James Armitage was far from the first person to face penal transportation for his crimes. England had been shipping out its convicts for over 200 years by the time Armitage was unable to pay his debts in 1855. Transportation was assigned for almost every crime conceivable, but the overwhelming majority of prisoners were transported for small thefts (such as food and clothing) and unpaid debts. Terms of punishment were typically for 7 years, 14 years, or life.
More than 40,000 prisoners were sent to the American colonies before the Revolutionary War, but once America became independent, Australia was the new destination for British convicts. The British government hoped that their new convict destination would deter crime, as it was a place that was considered the most remote place on Earth and was a three- to four-month journey by ship.
As Armitage said, "the old convict ships had been largely used as transports in the Black Sea" during the Crimean War. Armitage and co. were lucky to have the Gloria Scott as their transport ship, as conditions on the average one were much more harsh. Convicts typically were four to a cell and the security stricter than what that this group was able to overcome. The hatchways would only be wide enough for one person to pass at a time and each watch would require ten soldiers with guns loaded. Hardly the crew of men trying to affix bayonets to their muskets as prisoners rushed them that we read about in this tale.
Once in Australia, the majority of convicts built roads or worked for land owners as free labor Monday through Saturday, sunrise to sunset. If convicts were well-behaved during their terms, they could be issued a ticket-of-leave which allowed them freedom outside of their prescribed work hours each day. But any misbehavior was quickly met with flogging of up to 300 lashes.
When their terms ended, the majority of convicts stayed in Australia and populated the country; booking passage back to England was out of the question for the overwhelming majority of ex-cons. And when the British government offered them free land, seed, food, and other resources to populate the colony, it was an easy decision for many of them.
By Armitage's time, transportation was beginning to slow. Prisons were being built in England and the discovery of gold in Australia brought an influx of "respectable" citizens to the colony. 1868 saw the last transport ship unloading her passengers. By then, over 160,000 convicts had been transported to Australia for crimes ranging from murder to pickpocketing, and in 2015 20% of Australian citizens could trace their heritage to convict transportation.
So while James Armitage's escape from captivity was a bloody and terrifying one, the future that lay ahead for the convicts aboard the Gloria Scott was nothing to look forward to. And if the mutiny had not happened, James Armitage never would have returned to England and had his son, Victor Trevor who became friends with Sherlock Holmes. And Sherlock Holmes never would have shown off his "merest hobby" of observation to James Armitage, prompting the man to say the words that launched Sherlock Holmes on his destiny:
"...[I]t seems to me that all the detectives of fact and of fancy would be children in your hands. That's your line of life, sir.."
And we Sherlockians are better for it.
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Constitutional Rights Foundation: https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-11-2-a-beyond-the-seas-the-transportation-of-criminals-to-australia#:~:text=Another%20option%20was%20to%20banish,they%20worked%20off%20their%20sentences.
National Museum of Australia: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/convict-transportation-peaks
Stain or badge of honour? Convict heritage inspires mixed feelings: https://theconversation.com/stain-or-badge-of-honour-convict-heritage-inspires-mixed-feelings-41097
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