Mitchel was first transported to Ireland Island, Bermuda (arriving on the 20th of June, 1848, aboard the steamer HMS Scourge), where under harsh conditions the Royal Navy was using convict labour to carve out a dockyard and naval base. Surviving his time in Bermuda, in 1850 Mitchel was then sent to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania, Australia). where he re-joined O'Brien and Meagher, and other Young Irelanders, convicted in the wake of their abortive July 1848 rising. Aboard ship he began writing his "Jail Journal", in which he reiterated his call for national unity and resistance.