A Russian Convict Ship.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 311, 27 October 1888, Page 4

A Russian Convict Ship.

FurnishiM) with the necessary permit from the port authorities, I was enabled to inspect the internal anangements of the Russian convict transport Nizhni-Novgorod, which sails hence from Odessa with 460 eiiminal deported for the Russian penal island of Saghalien. From time to time reports have appeared in the foreign press, evidently based upon second hand and untrustworthy information, as to the treatment of these convicts during the long and tedious voyage of forty- five days to the Pacific. The following are the actual facts: — Considering that the convicts now banished to >Saghalion ate exclusively criminals of the very Avorst type, any further extension of the freedom of their accommodation on these vessels is held to be incompatible with the personal safety of the ship's company and convoy escort. The Nizhni-Xovgorod is an iron steamer of about 3,800 tons burthen, and is specially fitted as a convict transport. With a full complement; of convicts the vessel carries 652. The ofticers and crew number 80, exclusive of a marine convoy escort of 62 rcen, specially chosen for this duty. The iron-barred comparoments, or cageo, in which the convicts are confined run parallel, fore and aft, on either side the upper and lower 'tween decks. The iron bars, an inch thick, of these cages and the woodwork in which they are set are heavily and solidly constructed. The cases are of unequaul capacity and length, bub have a uniform height of seven and a halt feet. The more desperate characters are manacled and chained to iron staples in their berths, from which they are released when necessary. The greater number, although retaining the waist and ankle shackles, of light construction, have the freedom of traversing the length of the compaitment, which may vary from 25 to 40 feet. Between the outer bars and the two plain plank shelves or bunks lunning from end to end of the compartment which affords sleeping room for the occupants, there is a free space of about 4\ or 5 feet. Except during the distribution of rations, no culinary vessels are left with the convicts. Even the drinking water is obtained only through an indiarubber mouth-piece fixed in an enclosed water tank, and through which tho drinker sucks his draught. Immediately out side the cages and attached to the under part of the deck overhead is a steam-pipe connected with the ship's boilers. Into these pipes are fitted screw nozzles at intervals of 12 feet. The object of the stcara-pipe is to suppress any dangerous outbreak among the inmates of the cage. By means of a short hose, specially made to resist the steam heat, quickly attached to one of the steam-pipe nozzles, the turbulent convicts are readily quieted or parboiled. Strong water-jets have been found next to useless in allaying these occasional tumults. After the ship has passed the canal, but not before, batches of convicts are in turn brought upon deck for a .shower-bath and short exercise. A strongly-constructed iron railing eight feet high, crosses the vessel amidships in order that the convict during his bath and whilst unmanacled cannot by any sudden rush evade the guard and reach the quarter-deck. Some of the more desperate convicts, who stubbornly resist all disciplinary control, are confined to the cages during the whole voyage. Both the upper and lower 'tween decks arc open and airy, the system of ventilation is excellent, and the cages themselves are kept scrupulously clean. The cages are repainted every voyage. Every convict, in addition to having his bait 1 cropped short, has the left half of the head from front to back closely shaven. Among the 460 convicts carried by the Nizhni-Novgorod about 160 are murderers. One of these is a relative of the Shah of Persia — Prince Khanalam-Mirza, son of Prince Betman Mirza, twenty-five years of age, and sentenced to 20 years' bard labour for the murder of his brother in Russia. Another noble criminal is a large landed proprietor of Vilua, sentenced to eighteen years' hard labour for murdering a neighbour, also a landed proprietor. Six murderers are Mohammedans. Upon the greater number of these murderers, in addition to the various terms of hard labour in the mines and quarries, will bo inflicted on their arrival a given number of blows from the knout, varying from 50 to 125, according to their crimes. As is well known, capital punishment is rarely inflicted in Russia, and the Russians boast of their humanity in this respect ; but if it were possible to obtain a trustworthy return of the number of wretched convicts Avlin yearly succumb to the severity of hard-labour sentences, the result 'would appal oven the judges who pronounce these" so-called humane judg* ments. , -

- The convict's horror and dread of having fco live out these sentences is shown by the desperate attempts at self-destruction he •is over ready to make. On this account even the convicts' lavatories on the NizhniNovgorod havo been detached from cages, and are now built of iron in the ship's side. The convicts must pass to them under guard. Formerly the closet plates were frequently wrenched off, and the convict crawled and forced himself through the tubing to reach the wator and end his existence. I watched a party of convicts coming aboard this ves&el, and observed how close were the two gangway files of Cossacks and marines through which they passed, to prevent any poor manacled wretch casting himself into the water, knowing that tho weight of his chains would assure his drowning before a rescue were possible. The scene on board these departing convict ships is altogether saddening and depressing, perhaps the more so that ono does not hear a murmur of lament from the stolid-looking and broken -spirited wretches crowded behind the bars of these cages, which remind the spectator only too forcibly of the Avild beast dens we are accustomed to see in a travolling menagerie. I should add that these convicts aro collected from the central prisons of Kharkoff, Moscow, Vilna, KiefF, and other populousl centre?. Female convicts of this class are transported in a soparato vessel.