Hi all I may have said this before on this site - in which case I apologise for repetition - but I am with Geoff and other listers on this. In a textbook presented by an Australian university a couple of the reasons for transportation were that, because hanging was handed down for so many offences the prisons could not keep up with the demand (prisons nowhere as near commonplace as nowadays) that an alternative was needed. We note that even the transportation alternative was struggling, hence the prison hulks. One of the other reasons, by the by, was that our government thought that the penal colonies in Aus could provide wood for the Royal Navy ships. Regrettably, the Australian wood was found to be unsuitable. Oops! As a matter of interest - were all the transportees taken down south to be shipped or were some taken direct from northern ports eg from the Tyne? Regards Glenda glendalight@manx.net