18. Convict uprisings continued at the Norfolk Island penal colony
In December 1826, 66 convicts being transported to Norfolk Island seized the ship carrying them, holding the crew and their guards’ hostage. They sailed to New Zealand, where the ship was recaptured. 23 of the convicts were sentenced to hang, though only 5 were executed. The rest were returned to the penal colony. In 1830, 11 convicts escaped in a small boat, sailed to Phillip Island, and robbed the supplies of a botanist there. They were then put to sea, and none of them were ever seen or heard from again. It was presumed they drowned, though some of them may have made it to the Dutch settlements.
In 1834, about one hundred convicts mutinied against their guards in an attempt to steal a small vessel and sail to freedom. It failed and thirteen of the convicts were hanged. The repeated attempts to escape and the violence against the guards led to the increasingly harsh treatment of the convicts, as more and more recidivists were sent to the island prison. The harsh treatment and hard men on which it was inflicted made the island a desperate place. In 1844, Joseph Childs was placed in charge of the island. He immediately took steps to remove what few privileges remained for the convicts, and ordered harsher punishments for infractions.