My last engagement for the day was to attend in the Strahan Ampthiteatre a performance of Australia's longest running play, that tells the dramatic and true story of an amazing escape, an extraordinary voyage and an intriguing twist in the tale.
In January 1834 the Frederick the last ship built at the Sarah Island convict settlement shipyard is about to sail for the new prison at Port Arthur but ten convict shipwrights have other ideas.
Performed as a pantomime every evening by members of the Round Earth Theatre Company who also act as tour guides for the Sarah Island.
It was great fun including all the best features of a traditional pantomime requiring audience participation either by taking on roles and providing responses to cues e.g. One of the key characters aboard the Frederick is a parrot, the lady who played this role had the parrot screech off to a 'T'.
At the appropriate cue I joined into the fun with "Death or Liberty' on a number of occasions!!
A full account of this true story can be found at:
In summary:
Construction and theft
The Frederick was the last vessel to be constructed in the shipyards on Sarah Island. In 1833 the penal station was being closed down and its convicts transferred to Port Arthur; (We visited Port Arthur on Day 9 so more about this notorious penal colony in a later post) in the closing months of the year only about a dozen convicts remained on Sarah Island, completing the construction of the brig.
Four of the convicts were former sailors, and had been sent to Sarah Island because of their history of previous failed escape attempts. Among them was Londoner James Porter, a former whaler who had previously lived in Chile and left a wife and child there, before returning to England and then being transported to Australia for the theft of silks.
On January 14, 1834, ten of the convicts, led by Porter, seized the opportunity to escape by hijacking the Frederick. After overpowering their skeleton guard of jailers, they left them on shore with provisions.
The convicts then sailed across the South Pacific, arriving on February 25 near the mouth of the Bueno River, Chile. They scuttled the Frederick off-shore, travelled the remaining miles in the ship's tender, and passed themselves off in Valdivia as survivors of a shipwreck.
Chile
The governor of Valdivia was suspicious of the convicts' claims, and intended to have them executed as pirates before having a change of heart after an impassioned speech by Porter. The convicts were permitted to remain in Chile, though some left for the United States or Jamaica.
Recapture
Two years later, in 1836, the governor of Valdivia was replaced. His successor was more suspicious of the British convicts and alerted the passing frigate HMS Blonde. Four escapees—James Porter, William Shires, Charles Lyon and William Cheshire—were then arrested and shipped back to England, and subsequently returned to Hobart.
Trial and reimprisonment
The escapees arrived back in Hobart in March 1837 and were put on trial for piracy - a hanging offence. This caused a considerable public interest in the settlement, and the court was packed for the trial. James Porter and William Shires argued that as the Frederick had not yet been officially launched, it was impossible for them to have committed piracy: "It was canvas, rope, boarding and trenails, put together shipwise - yet it was not a legal ship; the seizure might have been theft, but not piracy." The situation was further complicated by the Frederick having been taken in a harbour rather than on the high seas, a requisite for piracy.
Ultimately Porter and the others were found guilty of piracy, but not sentenced to death. The convicts were imprisoned for two years in a Hobart jail, then transported to the notorious Norfolk Island penal colony, where Porter wrote his memoirs.
Porter's sentence on Norfolk Island was reduced after he rescued several officers when their boat capsized. He was later released from the harsh conditions of Norfolk Island and sent to Newcastle (Australia). In 1847 he again escaped, and this time was never heard from again.
A jolly evening enjoyed by all and it was then back for another sumptuous meal of shrimps, oysters and sea trout at the Strahan Village Hotel, oh and 'hokey-pokey' ice cream - a favourite of mine discovered in New Zealand.
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