A formative phase of the application of digital methods to the study of convict Australia was the establishment of a coding system for ship voyages carrying convicts from England and Ireland. As a starting point, this was based on the voyages identified by historian Charles Henry Bateson in his monumental book, The Convict Ships 1787–1868 (first published in 1959), with the unique identifier numbers given the prefix ‘BV’ (that is, British Voyage).

A brief video explaining the labelling of convict voyages, and the assigning of unique identifier codes to them, is available here.

The convict voyage codes can be found below (note, the database is searchable). This latest version is dated 1 March 2022.

Initially, codes were assigned to the voyages that arrived, on a roughly chronological basis, in Port Jackson, New South Wales, from February 1801 (beginning with the Anne I, [voyage ID: BV0001] to November 1840 (the arrival of the Eden [BV0415], followed by the four ships – the Hashemy, Randolph, Havering, and Adelaide that arrived in the second half of 1849.

Codes were then applied to the voyages to Van Diemen’s Land, Port Phillip, Western Australia and elsewhere, in total covering the period 1801 to 1868.

In sum, the initial coding system provided unique identifier codes for:

• 419 known British convict voyages to Port Jackson from 1801 to 1849
• 329 voyages to Van Diemen’s Land between October 1812 (commencing with the Indefatigable [BV0420]) and 1853.
• 13 voyages to Port Phillip from 1803 (beginning with the Calcutta [BV0749]) and 1849.
• 14 voyages to Norfolk Island from 1840 to April 1850
• 2 voyages to Moreton Bay in 1849-1850, and
• 37 voyages to Western Australia between 1850-1868 (ending with the Hougoumont [BV0814]).

A number of these voyages in fact called at numerous ports and thus sometime receive two unique identifier numbers. For example, the voyage Surrey I (3) from Sheerness, which arrived in Sydney on 3 March 1819, is coded BV0092 (being the 92nd voyage to Sydney since the beginning of 1801). It disembarked only 7 convicts before proceeding to Van Diemen’s Land with the remaining 150 men, arriving at the Derwent on 17 March. It’s arrival in Hobart Town is indicated by the separate code BV0424.

Since the initial coding system was devised, there has been a crucial update. Importantly, there were 43 voyages to Sydney before February 1801, which have now been coded using the prefix aBV (denoting that the ship arrived before the end of 1800).

Further, we have added the Guardian as aBV0000, because there are documents listing convicts who embarked on that vessel, although of course it never arrived in Sydney, hitting an iceberg shortly after leaving the Cape. At the request of researcher Cathy Dunn we have also added temporary IDs for the Supply, Sirius and Golden Grove, which did not carry convicts but were a critical component of the First Fleet and central to some of the professional heritage and family history research undertaken by our students and other research collaborators.

Some distinct codes are applied to voyages involving multiple ships, usually reflecting the existence of documents where the passenger lists of those ships have been merged (although the ships themselves also retain their own unique identifier codes). For example, the passenger lists of the Canada (1) [BV0003], Minorca [BV0004] and Nile [BV0005] are combined in a number of contemprary lists and indentures, the fact indicated by the creation of a separate and additional code: BV0005a. The same is the case for the 1802 voyage of the Perseus [BV0009] and the Coromandal [BV0006], which share the same list of Bound Indentures and are also combined in the Home Office Transportation Registers. That is indicated by a shared code for these voyages: BV0006a

A separate coding system is wanted for non-convict voyages in and out of Australia’s colonial port cities, and this is currently in preparation.

For comments, write to David Andrew Roberts, University of New England <drobert9@une.edu.au]