A "priceless'' one-of-a-kind collection of convict carvings has been offered for sale to the Bermuda Government by a Bermudian who spent the last 15 years scouring the Dockyard seabed for them.

If Government turns them down, numerous private collectors and overseas museums are reportedly eager to get their hands on the historic collection.

It consists of more than 200 hand-carved coral, stone and metal objects, including jewellery, miniature bibles, crosses and cannons, chess pieces, brushes, buttons, pipes, ashtrays, counterfeit coins.

To the owner, marine engineer Mr. Chriss Addams, a diver and amateur archaeologist, the carvings are a testimony to what the human spirit can endure. They are also a historical insight into the period and a poignant reminder of a very dark chapter in Bermuda's history.

Dockyard was "an infamous, atrocious and inhumane penal colony'', said Mr.

Addams.

Men jailed in Great Britain for petty crimes were treated in an "horrific manner'' in Bermuda. But their story seems to have been "swept under the carpet''.

The objects he unearthed were carved from within the miserable confines of the convict hulks anchored at Dockyard in the 18th Century.

Shackled and half-dead from disease and cat-o'-nine-tail lashings, and having worked until dark in the quarries to build a navy base at Dockyard for the British, the convicts returned to the overcrowded, humid, pest-infested ship hulks where they carved the exquisite objects by the dim light of smelly pig-fat lamps.

Using rudimentary tools of stone -- they weren't allowed knives but some must have had them, they finely shaped hard sea stones into all kinds of artful objects for play, to barter ashore for fresh fruit and rum or simply to maintain their sanity.

"When you say the Royal Navy built the Dockyard naval base, it was actually thousands of convicts,'' Mr. Addams said.

The carvings may have been thrown overboard with hulk refuse as punishment or because of disease outbreaks. Or they may have fallen over the side.

The hulks were simply out-of-use navy ships closed in with roofs to house convicts sent overseas to colonies for hard labour.

From Bermuda, the prisoners went to Australia, whose museums have expressed considerable interest in the collection, according to the sole agents for Mr.

Addams, Capcar Enterprises.

Capcar, owned by Mr. Barry Capuano and Mr. Paul Card, is helping Mr. Addams find a buyer and insurer for the collection, which will remain in a bank until then.

The company is also preparing an upcoming presentation on the collection for Government.

Community and Cultural Affairs Minister the Hon. Wayne Furbert conceded yesterday the as-yet-undisclosed price tag of the collection may be a problem.

Government looking at carvings However, Government was eager to acquire the collection, he said.

"We have to consider whether we could afford them and review the situation and see what we could do,'' Mr. Furbert said. "I can't make a definite yes, but I can say we are interested in the findings.'' Capcar said the developers of the proposed Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute had approached Mr. Addams about housing the collection.

And a representative of a Boston auction house had paid him a visit shortly after "the Crown'' recently granted him sole ownership to the convict material with a "sizeable offer''.

"Mr. Addams decided to hold onto the material in the belief that it should stay in Bermuda,'' Mr. Capuano said.

Said Mr. Addams: "It's part of Bermuda's cultural history.'' Mr. Addams began his long search for the carvings in 1979 after the late historian Mrs. Terry Tucker had given him a tip-off.

A two-year search for the suspected sites where the convict carvings were thrown overboard from the hulks was conducted. This was done in the winter months only because the waters were not as badly polluted from shipping.

The first site was found in 30 feet of water off the Short Arm of Dockyard.

After sifting and burrowing through several feet of deep mud, post-1860 overfill, coal and slag, he finally came upon a graveyard of convict hulk garbage -- horse and cow bones, bottles, jars, lamps.

Strewn within the waste were the convicts' ingenious carvings. A "time capsule'', Mr. Addams sums up.

The carvings are believed to be the only ones of their kind around today and their finding generated considerable interest in the media and archaeological world at the time.

Mr. Addams initial finds were presented to the Maritime Museum and a bowl and attached pipes was given to Mrs. Tucker.

"The need to licence the site became evident after the first year as other parties became aware of the unique finds,'' Mr. Capuano said. "This necessitated a meeting between Mr. Addams and the (former) Collector of Customs and Receiver of Wrecks Mr. Richard Kellaway, to seek Parliamentary help to modify the wording of Bermuda's wreck laws to cover not only shipwreck-related materials but also historical underwater sites.

"This amendment was passed with no opposition and the Short Arm site became licenced by Mr. Addams and with it came Government protection.'' Mr. Capuano said that in 1993 Mr. Addams was granted sole exploratory rites to the whole Dockyard and last year he and his longtime partner Mr. Michael Davis began excavation in search of another convict dump site off the Long Arm of Dockyard.

Mr. Addams said he believed he was "damn close'' to finding another cache of carvings.

Mr. Capuano noted that throughout his client's 15-year search, conducted on his days off and weekends in the chilly winter when ships were not in port, he has had no complaints from Government, Marine Police or Marine and Ports.

He has also compiled considerable research material on the hulks.

FRUITS OF CRUELTY -- This tiny cannon carved out of flow stone by a convict aboard an 18th Century prison hulk at the Royal Naval Dockyard is among more than 200 similar objects uncovered by diver Mr. Chriss Addams in his 15-year search of Dockyard waters.