Convict Labour - The Building of the Dockyard (Pt 3)

BY FREDDIE GOMEZ

[Left] A confinement cell for convicts awaiting punishment :: Photo: Gibraltar, a Convict Establishment. British Archives, London

By 1843 the Naval Yard was run and under the command of the British naval authority in Malta.  However, further slipways, mass sheds, sail sheds, stores, shipwrights' quarters and senior naval officers residences were constructed at the naval yard. And these works, along with the quarrying they had given rise to, were carried out using convict labour and hired labour.

1860 brought about additional work comprising the building of more stores, more quarters for naval officers, work sheds, water tanks, the enhancing of Rosia pier, the construction of the tramway from the Victualling Yard to the Naval Yard, a naval underground water reservoir and an array of related works.  All the works were generally undertaken with convict labour, and because of their lack of building skills, the scheduled timing of the projects usually fell behind. 

It must be said, however, that the convicts who undertook the repairs to the curtain wall such as Wellington Front were craftsmen in their own right and accomplished a remarkable work of construction.  The Casemates vaults as well as the battery of Wellington Front were also restored by convicts using the spoils of the restoration of the city walls.  Convict labour also altered the boundary walls of the Naval Yard.

While all these works were  being carried out, Gibraltar became a convict depot and convicts serving long term imprisonment were sent here from all parts of the British empire to serve their term in Gibraltar.  Records indicate that the first lot of convicts (a contingent of 200) arrived in 1842 on board the 42 gun frigate HMS Owen Glendower to be employed for the construction of a new breakwater.

[Above] The construction of No 2 Dock (Left of photo) named after Queen Alexander who visited Gibraltar in 1905 during its construction. The first warship to undergo repairs in the dock was H.M.S. Berwick.

[Above] THE CONVICTS' REGISTRY BOOK :: The entries on the book were made by the wardens and relate to the convicts' behaviour, the influx of convicts into the establishment, the names of convicts who were to undergo punishment and the kind of punishment imposed and the names of convicts who, having served their penal servitude in Gibraltar, were due for release.