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C&C Musters are small self-contained CREDITS additions to the Convicts & Cthulhu setting for Lovecraftian roleplaying in C&C Muster #2 is written by the early penal colonies of Australia. Geoff Gillan and Dean Engelhardt. The series looks at real-life historical Copyright © 2019. Published by characters from the convict era in Cthulhu Reborn Publishing . New South Wales and Van Diemen’s (WWW . CTHULHUREBORN . COM ) Land, through the lens of the Cthulhu Mythos. Each considers a The Convicts & Cthulhu setting historical personage in terms useful is published by Cthulhu Reborn in a Convicts & Cthulhu campaign, Publishing and is available via either as an NPC ally, enemy, or RPGNow and DrivethruRPG as a patron–or even as a player character “Pay-What-You-Want” title. investigator. Evocative and fleshed- out characters assist Gamemasters This PDF uses trademarks and/or copyrights by triggering possible story seeds, or owned by Chaosium Inc/Moon Design act as a focal point for connections Publications LLC, which are used under with other characters such as family 2 Chaosium Inc’s Fan Material Policy. We are or business associates. expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This PDF is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Chaosium Inc. For more information about Chaosium Inc’s The Master of Convicts products, please visit www.chaosium.com. Nicholas Divine (1739—1830): The Master of Convicts “Here are only convicts to attend convicts, and who in general fear to exert any authority, and very little labour is drawn from them in a country which requires the greatest exertions.” Introduction — Governor Phillip, 16 May 1788. Nicholas Divine (sometimes spelled Devine) was “The proudest Monarch on earth cannot equal him a member of the colonial government of the New riding thro' the Town on his charger” South Wales penal colony throughout most of the — Surgeon John Harris on Nicholas Divine, 1807. Convicts & Cthulhu era. A free Catholic Irishman, 1 he occupied an important middle-tier office known as the ‘Superintendent of Convicts’ making him responsible for the direction of which convicts were assigned to which tasks or postings. The unique nature of this important role — and the fact that the day-to-day life in the colony revolved around convict work gangs and convict servitude — means that it is very likely that free settlers and military characters in your Convicts & Cthulhu campaign will at some point have reason to curse or bless Nicholas Divine’s decisions. For convict characters, having Divine as an ally might make all the difference between a plum assignment and back-breaking labour. Even beyond his official duties, Divine is an interesting character who led a colourful and, at times, eventful life. This included an outward journey to Australia as part of a fleet which lost a ship to a fateful encounter with an Antarctic iceberg. Late in his life he also suffered a violent attack by bushrangers. These dramatic events can be woven into your Convicts & Cthulhu campaign, either as literal historical events involving Divine or as inspiration for similar events of your own of the Guardian' (page 7) for more details. After devising … perhaps with a more otherworldly surviving this deadly encounter, Divine transferred to explanation thrown into the mix. another ship, the Lady Juliana, and ultimately arrived in Australia in 1790. Included below are some handy notes designed to give the Gamemaster a wide variety of options for Immediately upon his arrival, Divine, aged 51, was using this interesting historical person in games of appointed Principal Superintendent of Convicts, investigative Lovecraftian horror. under Governor Arthur Phillip. This made him one of the central figures in the convict administration. He held this position (whose responsibilities are Character Origins and described below) for the next 18 years, only being dismissed from office by the dramatic events of the Life Before Australia Rum Rebellion which overthrew Governor Bligh in 1808 (see Convicts & Cthulhu for details). Nicholas Divine was born in Ireland, at Burren Maine, in County Cavan in Ulster in 1739. He worked After the two-year military coup had been quashed initially as a farmer but went to England and by 1782 by the arrival of a new official Governor, Macquarie, had become Superintendent at the prison hulks in Divine was granted a pension and retired to live on Woolwich (see box nearby). Divine’s work there made his farming property. He would have lived out the him ideal to transfer to New South Wales where rest of his days in peace were it not for a brutal Governor Phillip was decrying the lack of appropriate robbery and beating at the hands of bushrangers free men to supervise the convict population. that cost him his physical and mental health. Divine, along with eight other supervisors of convicts sailed on the Second Fleet in 1789. Their voyage to Australia was to prove more than usually perilous: Personality & Distinguishing one of the ships, the HMS Guardian (on which Divine Characteristics was travelling), became wrecked when her Captain sought unsuccessfully to replenish the ships water Nicholas Divine was a tall, strapping man and was supplies by navigating beside an iceberg sighted off a formidable opponent in the ploughing matches in the southern coast of Africa. See the box, 'The Wreck his native Ireland. He was known as something of 2 The Prison Hulks With the overcrowding of gaols in 1776 the the hulks. Convicts were shackled in irons and put to Hulks Act was signed, allowing old decommissioned work on the Government docks; it was hoped they could warships in the Thames and other English ports labour on such useful projects as cleaning the Thames. (including Deptford and Portsmouth) to be used as Bribery could attain lighter duties, but most convicts floating prisons. Convicts sentenced to transportation could not afford this. Dissector’s agents prowled the were often consigned to the hulks to await their docks offering 5 pounds for a convict corpse, something sentence being carried out. They were old sailing ships, that could be helped along by a doctor on the take. For no longer fit for sea travel. Sometimes these were old all this convicts still feared the unknown destination of British naval vessels, other times they were foreign New South Wales more than they did life in the hulks, ships that had been captured. They were refitted by for there they were at least still on English soil. having the sails, rigging, masts, and rudders removed Many convicts sent to Australia had spent time and internally fit-out with gaol cells. The disabled ships (sometimes a considerable amount) on a prison hulk were then towed to locations offshore in harbours or awaiting transportation to New South Wales or later in the Thames, to be permanently moored. Thereafter Van Diemen’s Land. they became floating prisons. The following prison hulks were in use around The hulks were filthy, overcrowded, and often the time of the Convicts & Cthulhu era. All were run by corrupt officials. Genders were not mixed on located in England. Former ship Location Years as Hulk Censor Woolwich, SE London 1776 – ? HMS Prudent Woolwich 1779 – 1814 HMS Dunkirk Plymouth, Devon 1782 – 1792 HMS Ceres Woolwich 1787 – 1797 HMS Chatham Plymouth 1793 – 1805 HMS Pegase Portsmouth, Hampshire 1794 – 1810 HMS Prothee Portsmouth 1795 – 1815 HMS Fortitude Chatham, Kent 1795 – 1820 HMS Captivity near Portsmouth 1796 – 1816 HMS Crown Portsmouth 1798 – 1802 & 1806 – 1815 HMS Laurel Portsmouth 1798 – 1821 HMS Portland Langston Harbour, near 1802 – 1817 Portsmouth HMS Savage Woolwich 1804 – 1815 HMS Vengeance Portsmouth 1808 – 1816 Players whose investigators have a convict background — either current convicts, or former convicts who are now free or ‘ticket of leave’ men — may well have spent time on one of the hulks. Adding such a detail to your investigator’s background can create opportunities for establishing connections with other characters who also spent time on the same hulk in the same period. For example, if your convict spent time on one of the Woolwich hulks, he or she may have come to know Nicholas Divine, perhaps even having earned his favour for a good deed. Alternatively, your convict may have made enemies while incarcerated on the hulk, murderous rogues that he or she thinks were to be kept in “Old Blighty” or sent to far corners of the world. But perhaps those ne’er-do-wells might turn up unexpectedly as part of a new convict arrival at Botany Bay, if the Game Master wishes. Sources: https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convict_Hulks and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ British_prison_hulks 3 a character in the colony, being notably proud. One Left for England to appear as a witness for of his contemporaries described him as possessing Bligh at George Johnston's court martial. a vast vocabulary, having purportedly “swallowed After he returned to NSW he was granted a dictionary.” Divine was also one of the first free a small pension. Returned to his farm and Catholics in NSW. Burren Burren to live. Divine injured his left hand and lost the use of two • 1822 — Divine and his wife were beaten by of his fingers during his voyage out. bushrangers at his farm and left for dead. His injuries were so severe he lost the use of his hands and legs and slowly lapsed into Roles in the Penal dementia. Settlements • 1830 — Died aged 91, three years after his wife passed away. Unlike the individual (Anthony Fenn Kemp) profiled in C&C Muster #1, Nicholas Divine served only one main role during most of the period What does the Superintendent covered in the core Convicts & Cthulhu setting.