Transportation

Penal Colonies in Australia

To the Hulk in Chains

Confusion and Delay

Five Martyrs were shipped in appalling conditions to New South Wales, where they were assigned as convict labour to landowners. George Loveless, delayed by illness after the Trial, later went in chains to Tasmania. Public pressure resulted in the men being pardoned by the King. Months passed before instructions to free the men reached the Australian authorities.

They did not return to England until three years after their infamous Trial.

On April 5, 1834 George Loveless was declared fit for travel. First held on the York hulk, six weeks later, on May 17, he sailed aboard the William Metcalfe for Van Diemen's Land.

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