The Chapman according to historian marjorie Barnard, was "uneasy" from the first, and Captain drake and Surgeon Dewar decided to keep the convicts in double irons.
On 25th of March, a sentry reported that the convicts were picking the locks, but guards found all quiet.
On April 25, convicts escaped on deck and were rushing the ship. The crew was put under arms and a number of convicts and suspected seamen were punished.
Four days later, Michel Collins, an informer, claimed that there was a plot for the convicts to seize the ship and sail to America.
Arms were piled on the deck in readiness, and the convicts confined between decks.
It was dark when the ship's cook felt the starboard fore shuttle lift under him, and he raised the alarm that the convicts were forcing the hospital bulkhead.
Opening fire, 3 convicts were killed, and 22 wounded, but the surgeon fearful, did not attend to the injured until morning.
Punishment was swift and convicts were put on half rations, and 70 to 100 chained overnight to an iron cable in the prison. Four lengths of chain were passed over each hatch, and threats to suffocate the convicts were made.
Punishments were inflicted for coughing, speaking Irish and rattling chains.
On 30th of April, guns were fired down the hatches, and two killed and four injured.
Paranoia increased, and soldiers and seaman suspected each other, leading to two seamen being killed after shooting broke out again.
On May 24, thirty more were wounded. The rest were starving. The ship arrived in Sydney on 20 July 1817.
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