Tasmanian Code of Signals, correspondence and extracts from Capt. Charles O'Hara Booth's diary Index: Royal Society Collection

Abstract

Capt. Charles O'Hara Booth (1800 - 1851) of the 21st Fusiliers was commandant of the Convict Stations on Tasman's Peninsula from 1833 until 1844 (Civil Commander of Port Arthur and Point Puer only from 1844). It was under his command that the township of Port Arthur was laid out. As commandant of convicts he was both efficient and impartial. The Lieutenant Governors Col. Arthur and Sir John Franklin both expressed great satisfaction after visits of inspection; Arthur describing him as 'kind, humane, active and most determined'. One of his main achievements was the establishment of a semaphore signalling system throughout the peninsula and also connected with Hobart. This provided a speedy means of communication, especially useful for notifying constable's posts of escapes of prisoners. For this purpose he drew up a code of signals. RS.31 In 1838 Booth was lost in the bush for 4 days which undermined his health. In 1844 he was appointed superintendent of the Queen's Orphan School, New Town. Booth was born in Basingstoke, England in 1800, In 1838 he married Elizabeth Charlotte Eagle (referred to in his diary as Lizzie) step-daughter of Booth's regimental surgeon. They had two daughters, the elder, Amelia Patricia, born in 1839. After Booth's death in 1851 his widow returned to England and petitioned for a pension. Also includes Tasmanian Code of Signals, compiled for the Penal Settlement of Tasman's Peninsula, including instructions and diagrammatic examples, list of stations and their numbers, including Battery Point, Mount Nelson, Eaglehawk Neck, Norfolk Bay, Wedge Bay, Settlement Staff, etc.; alphabetical list of words and corresponding code numbers (with some later additions in red ink); also list of codes for 'persons' (ie. officers, etc); nautical (ie. ships and descriptions of ships etc., such as 'the vessel is a female prison ship', the vessel has brought out emigrants; weather; boats (ie small boats); places; prisoners absconding, provisions; tools; stores; arms and ammunitions etc.. RS. 31