The Good Ship Surprize - 1790

The convict ships carrying felons to Australia were a national disgrace....

Surprize!……………………...................Surprize!

 

Hell ship sailing in to shore

Its groaning timbers groaning more

As Reverend Johnson went to see

The convicts great indignity.

Naked men of lice and chain,

Such hopelessness within their eyes

Could well begin the sad refrain:

 

Surprize!................................Surprize!

 

Bodies cast upon the rocks

As tortured voices cried: ‘A pox

On British justice and its way.’

The feeble fade and dying lay,

Creeping on all fours ashore

The breath of life within them cries

And Satan chants in growing roar:

 

Surprize!...............................Surprize!

 

Johnson gazed across the sea:

‘Is this what horror means to me?’

And eighty six all buried deep,

A troubled death, a troubled sleep.

Sent his call to Wilburforce

To try and right the spurious lies

So dead no more will ever call:

 

Surprize!...............................Surprize!

 

David Lewis Paget