There were one hundred and twenty-eight convicts that day; no small number upon which to experimentalize.  As soon as they reached the ship they were herded together below decks like so many cattle, with nothing to do but to curse, swear, fight, recount past crimes, relate foul stories, or plot future evil.  True, there was some attempt at order and classification, for they were divided into messes of six each, and Mrs. Fry eagerly seized upon this arrangement to form a basis of control.  She proposed to the convicts that they should be arranged in classes of twelve, according to ages and criminality; to this they assented.  A class thus furnished two messes, while over each class was placed one of the most steady convicts, in order to enforce the rules as much as possible.  She provided in this way for superintendence.

The next arrangement concerned work for the women, and instruction for the children.  “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do;” accordingly the ladies looked about for plans and methods whereby the enforced weariness of a long voyage should be counteracted.  They had heard that patch-work and fancy-work found a ready sale in New South Wales, so they hit upon a scheme which should ensure success in more ways than one.  Having made known their dilemma, and their desires, they were cheered by receiving from some wholesale houses in London sufficient remnants of cotton print and materials for knitting to furnish all the convicts with work.  There was ample time to perfect all arrangements, seeing that the ship lay at Deptford about five weeks; as the result of Mrs. Fry’s journeys to and fro, every woman had given to her the chance of benefiting herself.  In this way they were informed that if they chose to devote the leisure of the voyage to making up the materials thus placed in their hands, they would be allowed upon arrival at the colony to dispose of the articles for their own profit.

There was thus a new stimulus to exertion as well as a collateral good.  Hitherto, no refuge, home, or building of any description had existed for the housing of the women when landed at the port of disembarkation.  There was “not so much as a hut in which they could take refuge, so that they were literally driven to vice, or left to lie in the streets.”  The system of convict-management at that date was one of compulsory labor, or mostly so.  This plan tended to produce tyranny, insubordination, deception, vice, and “the social evil.”  In the case of men, Captain Mackonochie testified that they were sullen, lazy, insubordinate and vicious; the women, if not engaged quickly in respectable domestic service, and desirous of being kept respectable, become curses to the colony.  But by the means adopted by Mrs. Fry each woman was enabled to earn sufficient money to provide for board and lodging until some opening for a decent maintenance presented itself.  They thus obtained a fair start.