Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Luke Birnie was transported on the Calcutta, departing 19th Apr 1837 and arriving 5th Aug 1837 with 330 passengers.
HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley (1795), converted to a Royal Navy ship. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia. The French Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, a British boarding party burned her. In 1803 the Calcutta sailed into Port Phillip bay where at least 4 convicts escaped , in Sydney in April 1804 it was reported that 8 had died on the trip. Of the four known escapees one was shot on escape, 2 turned back after 2 days to reattach to the group at the camp in bay before the boat left , one continued on ...into Australia's history books. At least 13 convicts were transferred on to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Australia.The ship also carried officers, wives and free settlers.
Calcutta (generic)References
| Primary Source | Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. |
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Convict Notes
BURGLARY AND ROBBERY. Luke Bemie was indicted for burglary and robbery in the house of Alexander Armstrong, in Kingstown. A. Armstrong examined—ls the proprietor of the Anglesey Hotel, Kingstown on the.6th of February, usual, he locked up his bar and fastened the window; between six and seven o’clock the next morning, he found the window open, and a box and drawer broken open ; there was a pane of glass broken, and that means the fastening had been undone ; he missed large quantity of silver spoons, forks. &c., and some plated ware ; he saw three of his plated dessert spoons since ; identified them ; he knows the prisoner; he was in his employment for about five weeks last summer as under waiter. To the prisoner—You behaved very well while in service. John Murphy examined—ls boot-hoy in Mr. Armstrong’s Hotel ; he was in the same situation when the prisoner was there; on the day before the robbery he saw Bernie walking towards the hotel; stopped him and asked if there were many people in the hotel ; he replied that there were, and that he wished he had him or some one like him to help him in doing the work ; prisoner then said Mr. Armstrong would not have a robber in his house (he was just liberated from Newgate at the time) ; witness met him the morning of the robbery again, and told him the house robbed, and he asked him if the robber was known, after some conversation Bernie walked away, and and he never saw him again till in custody. Laurence Brien examined by Mr. Pigot, K. C.— Is a turnkey in Kilmainham ; about the 13th of February the prisoner came to inquire for a convict named Fletcher ; he brought him to Fletcher, went away, and when returned he found him at the door of another apartment, talking to a man named Duffy; he asked him what brought him there ; he said he was giving some spoons to him ; he identified the spoons. Francis McDonagh examined—ls a peace-officer; in consequence of some information he went to Liverpool, where he found the prisoner confined in bridewell ; he got two ingots of silver in Lord-street Liverpool, from a Jew, who told him he got them from the prisoner ; he shewed them to the prisoner, and said he had bought them in Boot-lane from a man named Johnson ; he afterwards said that it was in Drogheda he bought them. Edw. Allison examined—ls deputy-governor of Kilmainham ; he got three spoons in Kilmainham from three convicts, named Duffy, Kavanagh, and Lynch ; he gave them up to the officers of the head-office. Catherine Duffy, examined Mr. Pigot, K.C.—Her husband was transported ; while in confinement she went to visit him ; Bernie was along with her husband ; she was scolding her husband when said—We never were bad as we will when we get out; there are some people whom we will visit in Kingstown, and Mr. Armstrong shall be the first ; she went to visit her husband some time after, and seeing the prisoner there, she asked what he was in for and he replied for the robbery of Mr. Armstrong. Judge Crampton charged the jury, and the prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to transportation for life. The Pilot, 12 April 1837.
Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. Luke Birnie, alias Beirne, Berne, Berny, Byrne, Burn, age on arrival, 21, per Calcutta II, 1837. Tried at Dublin, 1837, Life for Burglary robbery. DOB, 1816, native place, Dublin Co. Single. Catholic. Labourer.