(this post comes from the Trivia Tribe at tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/threads which some of you might like...)


The Catalpa Rescue is the stuff of ambitious heroism and legend. A celebrated story in its day, a hundred and fifty years after the event, it has been largely forgotten. Never heard of the Catalpa rescue? You're not alone. Even in Western Australia where it happened, it has largely been overlooked..

To sum up the story of the rescue – it was a “can-do” and “go-getter” prison break, an olden-day global conspiracy with undercover agents and code books that took place with international coordination and effort from the US, Britain, Ireland and Australia.

The daring escape plan involved sending a whaling ship from New Bedford, Massachusetts, half way across the globe to bring convicts in Western Australia to freedom in New York over a distance of 18,708 kilometers (11,624 miles or 10,101 nautical miles as the crow flies and that’s the return trip only ! Captain Anthony navigated most of this distance without the use of a functioning chronometer which is considered a great feat of seamanship.)

The plan was the work of three meticulous minds – John Devoy, the cunning Irish spy, John Breslin, and whaling captain George Anthony. Together they devised an elaborate scheme to liberate imprisoned Irish Nationalists from Fremantle, one of the most hostile and remote prisons on earth.

Our story begins in Ireland in 1865 when the British started arresting Irish soldiers who had secretly joined the Fenian movement in the guise of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which was a secret society that flourished in the 1860s. Its activities included (unsuccessful) armed rebellion against British Occupation of Ireland. (The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and “Young Ireland” were some of the progenitors to the IRA and Sinn Féin) .

Convicted of treason and/or sedition, many Irish Political Prisoners were transported to penal colonies through the British Empire including Australia. Some of these people committed “crimes” such as calling for Irish Independence and Freedom through the Press and speeches. ..

In 1868 more than 60 Fenians were transported to Fremantle as political prisoners on the “Hougoumont”, the last convict ship sent to Western Australia. Their arrival signalled the end of convict transportation to Australia.

The civilian Fenains were treated as political prisoners, whilst the military element were treated as ordinary criminals. In 1869 the civilians were granted clemency and freed while the military element were left languishing in prison, many without the hope of release for many years.

Those on board the Hougoumont in 1868 included John Boyle O'Reilly who has been an NCO in the 10th Hussars (the prestigious regiment of the Prince of Wales) when arrested in 1866 for assisting fellow soldiers to join the rebellious Fenians. Found guilty at his court martial, his death sentence was commuted to 20 year's penal servitude which automatically meant transportation (anyone sentenced to seven years or more was transported). As one of the convicted who served in the British Army – he watched as his civilian counterparts were freed in 1869. He escaped in the same year on an American whaler to the USA where he joined other Fenians to plot the rescue of the last of their 'military' colleagues still imprisoned in Fremantle. Six would later be rescued by an American whaling ship, the Catalpa, on Easter Monday, 1876.

Several years after first arriving in Fremantle , one of the prisoners got a smuggled message to their former Fenian commander, John Devoy. This desperate letter urged the exiled freedom fighter to mount a rescue bid and release them from hell. The letters potency provoked an extraordinary reaction from the Irish American community who donated money to liberate these political prisoners of the British Empire.

In the dramatic story that unfolded, the Fenians in America bought a cargo ship, the Catalpa, in New Bedford Massachusetts, and refitted the vessel as a whaler registered to a whaling company. In April 1875 Catalpa set sail, initially for the Atlantic whaling grounds, but with a secret mission to fulfil.

The escape took two years to accomplish and required the financial assistance of over 7,000 Irish Americans and depended upon the ingenuity of three pivotal characters to pull off one of the greatest propaganda coups in Fenian history. These were the Fenian leader and New York newspaperman John Devoy, the convicts former Fenian commander who masterminded of the rescue plot. Irish patriot and secret agent, John Breslin, who was sent to Fremantle to supervise the rescue by masquerading as American millionaire. Breslin even managed to find time to have a romantic affair in Fremantle. God bless the Irish LOL..

The most unlikely of the three was the American captain of the Catalpa, George Anthony, a ramrod-straight Presbyterian Yankee who seemed to have little in common with the passionate and raucous Fenians.

On the day of the escape, Breslin's carefully planned prison break seemed perfect. The Catalpa lay close to international waters and a small whale boat with its crew was waiting onshore to whisk the men to freedom.

Eight Fenian prisoners who were supposed to be in work parties outside the Prison and escape, unfortunately, two missed out because they were confined for insubordination. Complicit in organising the escape was prison chaplain and several other locals..

Following confirmation of Catalpa's arrival off Garden Island WA, six of the remaining Fenians made their getaway from work parties outside Fremantle Prison using two horse drawn buggies. At Rockingham they boarded Catalpa's longboat..

What should have been a discreet 4 hour row to the waiting ship and freedom, turned into 48 hours of harrowing drama in which the rescue party were challenged time and time again.

The mobility of the Catalpa, designed to maximise its chances of avoiding apprehension, made it difficult for the whaleboat to rendezvous with it easily as she cruised about to avoid suspicion while awaiting the longboat.

The longboat sighted the mother ship in the distance at 5.30pm, but by 7pm a squall caused them to lose contact in the gathering darkness. This meant that the crew and passengers of the open boat were forced to spend an unwelcome, uncomfortable and unscheduled night at sea.

Meanwhile, the Western Australian authorities had found out where they had disembarked and set off on a hair-raising chase to apprehend the prisoners before they boarded the ship. Indeed the Catapla was challenged while the convicts struggled towards her in the longboat. Through storm and in front of their pursuers, the fugitive Fenians in the longboat finally made it to the ship on the day after leaving shore..

What followed was a standoff between an unarmed whaling ship and a British ship which had loaded onboard a full compliment of armed police and artillery..

The coastal steamer Georgette, one of at least two ships in pursuit, made contact with the Catalpa at 8 am Wednesday 19th April, firing shots across its stern and bow. The Catalpa hove to, but Captain Anthony, claimed they were in international waters under the American flag, and challenged the steamer to create a diplomatic incident if it dared (Britain had just lost a 3 million pound case involving a similar situation with an American ship)..

The master of the steamer, uncertain if Catalpa was in international waters or not, felt he had no choice, and reluctantly let the ship sail away. Triumphantly carrying the Fenian escapees, Catalpa arrived in New York in August 1876.

The odds were stacked against the plotters. It's difficult to believe they got away with it given the byzantine nature of British intelligence. Plenty of Fenians had been betrayed in the past by a loose word in the pub. But, amazingly, despite many near-misses, the rescuers pulled it off.

News of the escape flashed around the world. The British Empire had been humbled and humiliated by Irish pluck and American doggedness. Britain considered American involvement as a near act of war after the Catalpa had outran the Royal Navy and deposited its politically dangerous cargo in New York Harbor in August 1876

The Catalpa escape created a massive international sensation in its day. Its articulate heroes were celebrated as models of Irish wit and ingenuity and their story was handed down to the generations that followed them.

In Dublin and New York, the rescued six were seen as freedom fighters; in London and Perth they were officially portrayed as traitors and felons.

As the plots mastermind Devoy predicted, the prison break bolstered Irish morale and spurred the fight for independence onwards. This was finally won in 1922. Devoy lived long enough to realize that lifelong ambition and, half a century after being exiled, returned to the country he had fought so hard to free.

The Catalpa became a symbol of defiance against Great Britain and would loom large in the revolutionary rhetoric of Michael Collins and was the subject of many a fireside tale. .


Some More Catalpa Trivia
“The Ballad of the Catalpa” so annoyed the police that it was officially banned in Western Australia. Given that this law has not been rescinded, in theory one could be arrested for singing it in public even today!

During the escape, 16 men, stores and weapons were crammed into the whaleboat for the trip out to the Catalpa waiting offshore.

Spies were sent from America to Fremantle, Western Australia to coordinate the Catalpa escape. A code was developed and only two copies were made, one held by Captain Anthony and the other by the spy John Breslin.

The Catalpa was registered to John T. Richardson's whaling company After this episode the Catalpa continued its career as a whaler. Richardson finally sold it in 1884.

Captain Anthony would never again sail into international waters for fear of arrest by the British government




Sources
www.fremantleprison.com/histor...y32.cfm
www.irishaustralia.com/Austra...lpa.htm
www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets...sh/index.html
www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm
www.rte.ie/tv/hiddenhis...parescue.html
www.news.com.au/couriermai...422,00.html
www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm
www.theage.com.au/news/tv--...29055.html
www.abc.net.au/rn/deepend...1753667.htm
www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs...6b.htm

Distance tools:
www.timeanddate.com/worldclo...sult.html
www.infoplease.com/atlas/ca...ance.html