Patrick Magovern R. N.,
Convict Ship Surgeon-Superintendent
Date of Seniority Royal Navy 16 March 1814
Patrick Magovern was entered in the Navy List of Medical Officers in 1814. He was appointed Surgeon to the Primrose in 1817[1]
Surgeon Superintendent
He was employed as Surgeon-Superintendent on the female convict ship Minerva in 1839. This was Patrick Magovern's only voyage as a Surgeon Superintendent on a convict ship. He kept a Medical Journal from 18 August to 26 December 1839In his concluding remarks in the Journal he expressed his frustration in dealing with the women:
In attending to the endless complaints and wants both real and assumed of 119 female convicts, the greater number of whom were victims of dishonesty, it may easily be imagined what trouble the medical officer in charge is put through. Then there is the fighting and scolding day and night above and below. The real sickness and sham illness to obtain hospital comforts are scarcely credible. Then there are the children of convicts, the greater number at the breast from whom the poor wretches had little nourishment to obtain. [6]
He was on the List of Surgeons of the Royal Navy who were fit for service in 1841 and 1843
Death
Patrick Magovern died in 1849 -On the 7th inst. at his lodgings, 23 Elizabeth Street, Pimlico, Patrick Magovern, Esq., late Surgeon R.N., formerly of the county of Cavan, Ireland, and brother of the late Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh. [2]
References
[1] Hampshire Telegraph 7 April 1817[2] London Medical Gazette: Or, Journal of Practical Medicine, Volume 44, p.479
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