Beneath Another Sky: A Global Journey into History by Davies Norman

Author:Davies, Norman [Davies, Norman]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781846148323
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Once they were caught up in the penal system, it was no easy matter for convicts to evade it. Since average life expectancy did not exceed forty years, many died in imprisonment. They could apply for a ticket of leave after serving half their sentence, subject to good behaviour and to regular reporting to a police station. They could also apply for a conditional pardon, providing that they never returned to Britain. ‘Free Tickets’ or absolute pardons were handed out quite generously to prisoners in good odour with the authorities. After that, they could usually find a job as a deckhand on an American whaler, or a cheap passage to New South Wales or New Zealand. Fewer than half, if they didn’t die, stayed in Van Diemen’s Land. Only a handful ever got back to Britain.

The escape of a convict always made headlines, but one in particular features in the island’s annals. Alexander Pearce (1790–1826), transported from Armagh for stealing six pairs of shoes, escaped twice and was twice recaptured. On the first occasion, he boasted of eating his companions, but was not believed. On the second occasion, after the remains of his fellow escapee were found, there could be no doubt. He had killed the other man, he confessed, when they reached a river and his companion could not swim. At the Hobart Assizes of 1826, which sentenced him to hang, Pearce was defiant. ‘Human flesh,’ he told the magistrates, ‘tastes better than beef or pork.’27

Three years later, the ship Cyprus was hijacked by convicts en route to detention at Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast. The hijackers first marooned those who refused to join them, then headed to China, where they posed as shipwrecked British sailors. Arriving back in Britain, they were dismayed to be greeted by one whom they had marooned, John Popjoy, who had built a coracle, flagged down a passing vessel, returned to Hobart, and earned himself a pardon. Popjoy’s evidence secured the hijackers’ execution at a court martial, except for one named William Swallow, who pleaded coercion, and became a famous ballad hero:

Poor Tom Brown from Nottingham, Jack Williams and poor Joe,

Three gallant poacher lads they were, their country that does know,

And by the laws of the Game Act, that you may understand,

They were fourteen years transported, unto Van Diemen’s Land.

Down Hobart Town we gathered, on the Cyprus Brig conveyed.

Our topsails they were hoisted, boys, and our anchor it was weighed.

The wind it blew a nor’ nor’ west, and on we steered straightway

Till we brought her to an anchorage in a place called Recherche Bay.

Confined inside a dismal hole, those lads devised a plan

To take possession of that brig, or else die every man.

The plan it was agreed on, and we all retired to rest

And early in the morning, boys, we put them to the test.

Up steps bold Jack Muldemon, his comrades three or more,

We soon disarmed the sentry, and left him in his gore.

It’s Liberty, Oh Liberty! It’s Liberty that we crave.

Deliver up your arms, my boys, or the sea shall be your grave.

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