Latest / Ridiculous History / The Australian Prison Break of 1876, Part 2

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The Australian Prison Break of 1876, Part 2 · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. We're continuing our dive into heist.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We're still going through our hist phase. This is part
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: two of an infamous prison break. Uh, and we cannot
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: wait to get to the rest of the story with you.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: That's Max Williams, our one only super producer. I'm Ben
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: noel Man this one. I'm into it. It's so cinematic.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Oh boys, what ever? Um, And we're actually getting into
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: some of the most cinematic parts of the story in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: today's episode. So we don't know, we don't need to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: preamble this and the amount, let's get right to it.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: They start to gather funds together, like like cash money
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to put together the resources they need to pull off
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: this rescue. Yes, yeah, they do, and they get thousands
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  Speaker 1: of dollars together pretty quickly. Uh. And then they also
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: they start to make their plans. So what they're gonna
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: do is they're going to charter a boat they're gonna
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: sail down to Australia and then they're gonna arm themselves.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: And about a dozen of them are gonna go spring
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  Speaker 1: the Finians from the joint. That was the original plan,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, come in there with shock
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  Speaker 1: and awe, the roar of thunder and firearms. But as
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: they thought about it, more and more the voices maybe
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: maybe it's smarter if we use a little stealth. So
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: maybe we make this less of an assault and more
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: of a way for it high east. Yeah, much more
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: of an ocean's eleven than a suicide squad situation. There
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it is. That's a good comparison. So so what do
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you need in the heist? You need your specialist picture.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The montage moment, Uh, Devoy is walking around clooney brad
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  Speaker 1: Pitt style and he's he's picking up his people. Uh.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: He finds a guy named George Smith Anthony not a Catholic,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: a Protestant sea captain who has been in the whaling game.
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  Speaker 1: And he convinces this guy, He's like, look past the politics,
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  Speaker 1: past the you know details here, George, this rescue mission
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  Speaker 1: is a mission of universal freedom and liberty. And much
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: like our boy O'Reilly you know, found help from a
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  Speaker 1: a kindly whaling captain. Um, the same thing was true here.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: This is not the same whaling captain. This is an
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  Speaker 1: area that would have seen a lot of traffic from
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  Speaker 1: whaling vessels due to, you know, the high density of
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  Speaker 1: wales in this part of the ocean. Um. But I
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  Speaker 1: guess whaling captains are by nature sort of like down
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  Speaker 1: for criminality. Down down, yeah, down down to down to
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  Speaker 1: help out some convicts. And I don't know, maybe it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: just a local the whaler's code. I don't know. No,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I'm just thinking to my head, ohalien captains, the original Juggalos.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But that's maybe not accurate. But it's a fun picture anyhow.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: You're right, you're absolutely right. Now. So this captain's on board.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: George is on board, and he gets the instructions from
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the gang. They say, look, you're gonna go out to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: see on this whaler, the Catalpa C A T A
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  Speaker 1: l P A, And you're gonna you're gonna act as
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  Speaker 1: though you are on just a routine whaling voyage. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: abnormal about this. Uh, you're not gonna tell your crew
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  Speaker 1: what's really going on. You are not to tell them
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  Speaker 1: this is a rescue mission. Because Devoid thinks back on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the rebellion, you know, and he says, okay, you gotta
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: watch out for snitches, basically, so he doesn't want anybody
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: in the crew spilling the beans or dropping the ambergriss
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: on these folks. So he says, you're gonna keep it secret,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: keep it safe, and you're gonna need to return with
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a full load of whale oil to recoup all these expenses.
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  Speaker 1: The mission is already getting crazy expensive, by the way, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it really is. I believe we are nearing the twenty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollar mark. Shall we boop that new listeners? The
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: boop implies, um, we're running it through the handy dandy
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  Speaker 1: inflation calculator. Twenty thousand dollars in eighteen late eighteen hundreds time,
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  Speaker 1: by today's standards, would have been three hundred forty four
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Holy cow, that's a lot. That's a lot.
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  Speaker 1: And this is that's just a rough estimate. It's actually
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  Speaker 1: a little over that. But the interesting thing about this
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  Speaker 1: is when you get the sense of it, when you
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: get a sense of how much that is in today's money, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: you can see why one guy had even mortgaged his
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  Speaker 1: house to get these dudes out of that Australian prison.
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  Speaker 1: This enormous expense chartering a whaling vessel enacting this conspiracy.
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  Speaker 1: It's still had some pieces missing because Devoie had to
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: ask himself, well, what are we gonna do when we
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: actually get on the ground in Australia. How we We've
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: got to get some help there, that's right. So they
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: employed the help of Mr John James Breslin, who was
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  Speaker 1: a bearded fellow and Finnian agent. His whole job in
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: this prison break was to get to Fremantle ahead of
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  Speaker 1: the whaling ship the Katapa, and pretend to be an
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  Speaker 1: American millionaire named James Collins. He had to keep the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: James in there for whatever reason. You know, sometimes having
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: like improv shows, like people will use their same first
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: name for their characters just makes it easier. Um, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that was maybe that was the logic
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  Speaker 1: behind it. But James Collins is the student that he's using,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and he was meant to see what he could see
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: do a little bit of recon right, yeah, yeah, So
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  Speaker 1: in in our high screw, right this, in our high screw,
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  Speaker 1: our whaler George is kind of our getaway driver. He's
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  Speaker 1: our transporter, you know, Jason Statham style and Breslin here,
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  Speaker 1: excuse me, James Collins millionaire. He is what we call
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the face, right. He like he's the one who would
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: be kind of somewhere between an inside man and a
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  Speaker 1: con artist. Breslin's scheme, his ruse is successful, and he
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  Speaker 1: sees fremantle prison. Uh, and it's not looking easy because
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: if he if he looks over to the eastern view,
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  Speaker 1: there's anohing but desert stretching out to the horizon. And
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: if he looks to the west, there's water are a
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  Speaker 1: lot of sharks. And then he noticed that there might
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  Speaker 1: be an advantage in this inhospitable terrain because the security
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  Speaker 1: at the at the prison wasn't super tight. They weren't
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  Speaker 1: super on the ball because frankly, their thought was probably
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: something like where these guys gonna run, you know, death
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  Speaker 1: by dehydration, death by shark. The prison might be the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: safest place, but death by whale becose guys suckers swallow
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: hole could be like a Pinocchio type situation. Whales are big, right,
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  Speaker 1: there's that if they could make it past the sharks. Right,
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  Speaker 1: So this guy does this thing where he's like James Collins,
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  Speaker 1: American millionaire, I'm interested in making some investments. I'm looking
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  Speaker 1: for investment opportunities. I would love to visit your prison.
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  Speaker 1: And then his stick here is that he is James
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  Speaker 1: Collins is trying to save a couple of bucks by
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  Speaker 1: hiring out cheap prison labor, by renting the prisoners to
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  Speaker 1: do work for him. Yeah, and he even managed to
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  Speaker 1: get a note to the Fenians uh that the rescue
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  Speaker 1: was happening, everything was going as planned, and to just
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: post up and hold tight and that help was on
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the way. And so yeah, you're right. Then he established
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: this kind of relationship with the prison brass under the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: false pretenses of hiring prison laborers to do some cheap
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  Speaker 1: work for him. And whatever his investments and his interest,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I like it. Yeah, make him Southern. Yeah, let's do
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that him and abroad. It's definitely stunning, no question about it.
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  Speaker 1: But part of that message also was, Hey, we want
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you're not locked up or we
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: can't get to you when the rescue does, you know,
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  Speaker 1: pop off, So be on your best behavior, don't get
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  Speaker 1: into trouble, and try not to get thrown into solitary
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  Speaker 1: because if you're there, we can't help you. We got
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  Speaker 1: one shot, guys, we got one shot. Everybody beyond your
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: pieas and cues. This is like that poem just before Christmas,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: be as good as you can be, because it's also
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: like that poem by Eminem Lose Yourself. Yes, very much
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: like the from the Great American poem in Him. They
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: have to do this for a while because the Catalpa
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  Speaker 1: takes nine months to make it out to Bunbury. This
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Captain George Anthony, he's not having a great time on
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  Speaker 1: the trip. There's bad weather, the navigation equipment is all
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: kinds of food bar. They stopping the as Wars to restock,
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  Speaker 1: and then boom, six of the crew members ghost. They
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  Speaker 1: totally desert and so he's stuck at the as Wars
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  Speaker 1: until he can find replacements for the crew. And then
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  Speaker 1: he also has to you know, maintain this cover of
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  Speaker 1: being an actual whaling vessel. The problem is that the
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  Speaker 1: water he's traversing has been kind of fished out, it's
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  Speaker 1: been kind of depleted. They're not going to make much
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  Speaker 1: money back from this trip, and yeah, that's the very
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: least of their worries, but they still want that scheme
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that roused to appear solid incredible. Anyway, Breslyn meets up
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  Speaker 1: with Captain Anthony. They make a plan. They say, Okay,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: these Fenians before James Collins and do like him Southern.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Before Collins, these Fenians had been doing a bunch of
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: different jobs, right, we mentioned quarrying, We also mentioned building roads,
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  Speaker 1: that kind of hard outdoor labor. But they're not always
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  Speaker 1: doing the same thing. And so to make this work,
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  Speaker 1: Breslyn would need all six of the Finians outside of
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  Speaker 1: the walls of what they did. By the way, call
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: this the establishment at the time, and he knew that
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: anybody was stuck inside when they shot, their shot would
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: be left behind the snow way around it. So another
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: plot twist happens because heistro alway about the unforeseen plot twist, right,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: these two Irish guys turn up. They're in Fremantle, and Breslyn,
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  Speaker 1: being a suspicious sort, says, I think these guys might
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  Speaker 1: be spies. But then he learns that they had. They
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: had come on the scene because someone had written a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: letter to them asking for help, and so they agreed
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that on the day of the escape, these two dudes
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: who just showed up, by the way, we're gonna cut
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the telegraph line from Fremantle to Perth. So they would
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: they would remove the ability to communicate and request reinforcements.
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  Speaker 1: Fast forward April eighteen seventy six, Breslyn gets a message
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  Speaker 1: to the Finians. He says, look, we got money, we
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: got firearms, we got clothing. You guys make a run
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  Speaker 1: for the Catalpa, the ship tomorrow morning. Let no man's
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  Speaker 1: heart fail him. It's really good at these lines. Dude
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: come tearing up a little bit, like these guys have.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I would listen to him. Order a sandwich a million
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: per because you know they're gonna say and super awesome, thick,
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  Speaker 1: sexy Irish accents, no question. Oh you're feeling it with us,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: aren't you, Max, I think we're all. I have a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: bit of a crush on people with Irish accents, just
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: putting that out there, and it's a it's a lovely,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: lovely accent, much preferred to those guttural scots. Just kidding
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: you to your guttural scots. But it's a very similar
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: set up, but arranged right from what O'Reilly experienced when
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: he escaped. But Anthony had ordered the ship that they
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: had retained to wait uh several miles out at sea,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: beyond Australian borders, outside of Australian waters um and that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: he would get a rowboat to wait twenty miles up
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  Speaker 1: the coast from the prison. Breslyn was then meant to
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  Speaker 1: deliver the Finnians to that location where they would get
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: onto the robot and be rowed back to the ship. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Monday morning day arrives sixteen. Those two new guys in
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  Speaker 1: the crew. Uh, they did successfully severed the telegraph wire.
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  Speaker 1: Breslet does get horses, wagons and guns to the rendezvous point.
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  Speaker 1: He waits or to a rendezvous point that's nearer to
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  Speaker 1: the prison, and he's just hoping against hope that these
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  Speaker 1: guys make it out. So let's meet our escaping inmates.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Thomas Derog is out digging potatoes. Nobody's watching them. Where
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: is it gonna go? Thomas Hassett and Robert Cranston managed
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to talk their way out of the walls. Get some
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: such guy named Martin Hogan is painting a house for
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the superintendent. These two other guys, James Wilson and Michael Harrington.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And that's the James Wilson you remember from earlier. This
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: voice from the tum guy. They said, look, we're supposed
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to do a job at the Warden's house. So all
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: these guys are outside. This is so weird. This is
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: um kind of petty, but this is an important part
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of the film we're building because Noel Breslan sees these
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: six dudes heading towards them. And there's an interesting historical note,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it could have been seven. It was a guy named
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: James Jeffrey Roche was supposed to be going with them,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: but he had been cut out of the deal right
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: for some treacherous deeds where he basically tried to dime
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: out his cohorts in exchange for a lighter sentence. So
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: he was a cooperator as well, but for the British
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and this was definitely unknown now, so he was ejected
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: from the plan. Again't surprise they didn't take more heavy
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: handed measures with a guy like that. Yeah, yeah, And okay,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: So they're on the lamb, they're escaping, done and they've
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: been gone less for less than an hour when some
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of the guards say, hey, what what happened to the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Irish guys? But they make it to the shore and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: when they get to the shore, Anthony, Captain Anthony's crew
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: is waiting with the boat. But the Katalpa again, like
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you said, is way out at sea. We're talking hours
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of rowing just to reach the actual ship. So they
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: get about half a mile from the shore and then
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Breslan sees police mounted police arriving and they've got trackers
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: with them. That's right. They weren't expecting to be chased.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: This would be a nice leisurely rowing. I'm sure they
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: would have done at a brisk pace. Still, Uh, you know,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: being pursued for your life, certainly you're gonna row for
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: your life. So adding insults and injury, we now have
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a Coastguard vessel and a steamer that was commanded by
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the Royal Navy. Um, they've all been deployed to catch
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the robots. So it became this like you know, medium
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: speed chase on the water. I mean man versus a machine. Right,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: they had a steamer. Those are pretty those are I
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: don't know what I mean. I guess it's all about steamships.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Weren't like super super fast, Um, and asked the robot.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: But they had the they had a head start, I suppose.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So the men were just rowing for their actual lives
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: while being pursued by authorities from the Coast Guard and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the British who are armed with carbine rifles. So Breslan,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: who we know is excellent at rallying the troops, pulls
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: out a copy of a letter that he had just
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: mailed to the British Governor of Western Australia. Uh and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in and in like total Breslan style, We're gonna do
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: a little reading here too. This is to certify that
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I have this day released from the clemency of her
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, etcetera, etcetera,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: six irishmen condemned to imprisonment for life by the enlightened
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and magnanimous government of Great Britain. Uh in real stargasm here,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I love it for having been guilty of the atrocious
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and unpardonable crimes known to the unenlightened portion of mankind
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: as love of country and hatred of tyranny. People are
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: firing at them, by the way, put no question about it.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Pew pew, like bullets bouncing off the water, like cutting
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: you know, little h ripples through the water right around them.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: This is stuff of a cinema. Love of country and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: hatred of tyranny. For this act of Irish assurance, my
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: birth and blood being my full and sufficient warrant, allow
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: me to add that in taking my leave. Now I've
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: only to say a few cells I've emptied. I have
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the honor and pleasure to bid you good day, sir,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: from all future acquaintances. Excuse me, I pray in the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: service of my country. John J. Bresling, I thought he
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: was an American millionaire, says somebody psych The Findians love this,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you know. They're being tossed in the ocean and rowing
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: their their keysters off. They let out a cry, rallying cry,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and they keep going for the Catalpa, And now they're
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: getting closer. They can see it in the distance. But
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: that steamer, which by the way, is named the Georgett,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: is on their high knees. Since we're a family show
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and the end is rising, they know us. Storms on
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the way, darkness falls, waves are crashing. It's the boat
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: is overloaded, by the way. It's a it's a rowboat.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: It's got a lot of people on it, and it
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: was getting blown out. To see. Captain Anthony is literally
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: standing tall. He's telling everybody, bail, bail all the water
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you can. And he even he privately, we learned later,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: is thinking I don't think we're gonna make it. I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: don't think so. So it does not look good, does
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: not look good. And just credit what credit is due.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Always this account and this kind of sequence of events
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: beautifully uh dramatized in that Smithsonian article that we mentioned,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and we're kind of following their lead on this one,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: but we then have, uh, what what you're talking about?
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: The wind kind of rising man, that's uh, that's that's
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: some good foreshadowing. Ah, yeah, here's what. Here's what happens.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So they're rowing through the nights, they don't drown, and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: when morning comes, that steamer is kind of ignoring the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: rowboat and they say, we're going straight for the Catalpa
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: because we know where these guys are headed. They're not
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: making it. Two freedom in this rowboat. So the captain
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of the steamer, the georgeet and goes to a guy
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: named Sam Smith who is running the Catalpa while Anthony
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: is doing the rescue mission. And the captain of the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: steamer says, hey, can I come aboard? And the guy
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: who's in charge of the Katalpa says not by a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: damn site. And because of this, the steamer is already
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: low on fuel and they have to go return to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: shore to re up. And that's what Captain Anthony and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: his finny and pals make a mad dash for the Catalpa,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and a cutter starts racinging British cutter. They barely get
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to the Catalpa like right before the British, and then
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the whaling ship takes off Captain Anthony's back at the helm,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: he turns it away from Australia and that's when their
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: luck ran out. Yeah, yeah, nothing last forever um. They
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: had a good run, aided by that magical, seemingly magical wind,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and the Katalpa, being you know, a sailing ship relying
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: on the wind, was no longer able to to move.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: It didn't have anything to fill it sails and push
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it forward. So by morning time, the Georgiette, which was
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: that steamer that was loaded down with a cannon by
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the way, pulled up right alongside the Katalpa, and the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Fenians have truly believed their collective goose was cooked. The
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: British began to board and the Fenians uh prepared for
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: their what they believed was going to be their last stand.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And this is where Captain Anthony gets his time to shine.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: This is where he makes his speech and he we
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: won't give you the whole thing, but he tells these
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: newly rescued Finians, look, the choice is yours. You can
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: die here or you can die back in that prison.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: We're out guns, were outmanned, out numbered, out planned, etcetera.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And the crew, remember they didn't understand the real mission
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: when they set off originally, but they are going to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: stand with these Finians. And they're grabbing everything they can
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to fight, and they're grabbing harpoons like they would use
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: in their whaling missions. The Georgette fires awarding shot across
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the Katapa's bow and they say he too. And then
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Anthony says what for? And they're like, you have escaped
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: prisoners aboard dot ship? Um, this is what for? Like
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I'll give you what for? Or is this what for? Like? Why? Why? Okay,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: it's a y situation, gus um. So he says prisoners.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: What does Anthony say? Anthony says, you were towards to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: this notion that they have escaped prisoners. Uh, you're mistaken.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: You have made a grievous error and judgment. There are
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: no prisoners aboard this ship. They are all free men,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: again referring back to that letter, because in their minds
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: they were being held unjustly for the you know, egregious
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: send quote unquote of love of country, right of resisting
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: tyranny from their perspective, So the British say, all right,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you got fifteen minutes to pump your brakes. We're gonna
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: blow up your mast. And the Katapa is also very close,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: you know, now it's been calmed and it it doesn't
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: have any wind to propel it. It's very close to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: floating back, drifting back into Australian waters. And so Anthony
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: points to the stars and stripes on the ship and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: he says, this ship is sailing under the American flag
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and she is on the high seas. If you fire
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: on me, I warn you that you are firing on
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the American flag, which is quick thinking because they're in
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: international waters, right, this is a British ship. It would
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: be firing on a U. S ship. And he is
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: he's saying like the late nineteenth century equivalent of you
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: want smoke, Yeah, I mean, it would be an active
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: war essentially, or you know, create a serious international incident. Um,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: it would have been a problem. But just as he's
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: making this incredible speech and and and pulling this really
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: bold power move with the British. The wind comes back
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and the sails are hoisted and they're able to high
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: tail it out of there with the Georgette still you know, following,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: but only for about an hour. And they've clearly been
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: shaken a little bit by what they were told. The idea,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: this is an American ship and any firing on it
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: would be an active aggression against the High States of America.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: So they didn't fire on the American ship because again
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: they were in international waters. It was just the two
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: sides words against each other, you know. The cap the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: commander of the ship said nope, these are not escaped convicts.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: This is my crew and they are freemen. So it
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: was very, very tricky. It became a political situation here,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and the British commander finally decided, you know what, screw this,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: let's head back. And at this point the Fenians were
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes, actually free man. Fade out
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: on the peaceful seas, uh and yeah, there you go,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: there you go, and then we open like fade in.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Four months later, the Katalpa makes it to New York,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: thousands of people are waiting to meet these six men.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Thousands of people are cheering, and there's a Fenian procession
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: up Broadway. John Devoy, John Breslin, and George Anthony are
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: hailed as straight up heroes. News of this prison break
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: spreads across the planet. A lot of people find this
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to be like an heroic move, but not the British. Surprise,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: they say, the US government is associating with terrorists or
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: their their specific words, where the U. S Government is
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: fermenting terrorists and he said like a fine kim chi, yes,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and the and the They say additionally, they're like, look
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that Captain Anthony and his crew. They might be laughing
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. Everybody's having a bit of a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: go at. How do I see? But they said this
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: is a little nerdy, even though that's a good point.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: They said, they're laughing at our scrupulous obedience to international law.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: That's what's happening here, which is like, yeah, no, I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: hate to say it. Yes, So eventually, you know, they
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: changed this story a little bit later and they say,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: actually this is good for us because those guys were
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: an expensive nuisance, uh, and the United States can have
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: any number of here we go disloyal turbulent plotting conspirators. Again,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: They're like, we don't want you can have them in,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: take them. We gave them to you. That's what happened.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Kind of like a bad live of insults right there.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It really is it, really and truly turbulent? Yes, uh
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: so what is that? Sorry? Turbulent disloyal plot in conspiracies.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Oh to all their silly machinations too. I love to
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: add that as a kicker, um, but hitherto fourth, I'm
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: just gonna keep with the silliness. Uh. This group of
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: men were referred to as the Fremantle Six, and they
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: were definitely still carrying around what would today probably be
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: considered PTSD from their time um when they were incarcerated
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in Freemantle Prison, And even though they'd made their getaway,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: they were essentially, according to Devoi in many of his writings,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: broken men. Yeah yeah, I mean they've been through uh
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: horrific things, you know. And Devoid had known these guys
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: as soldiers, so he wasn't ready for the permanent changes,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the psychological and physical damage that had been racked upon
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: them over a decade's worth of time in the prison. System,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but he did see more silver lining. The men were
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: free and the rescue was a shot in the arm
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: for Irish morale across the globe, and it brought this
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: new wave in the fight for Irish independence. And ultimately
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you could say that the Fremantle six and the katal
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Per Rescue played a role in the independence of the country.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Ireland became independent in nineteen twenty two, and Devoy was
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: alive long enough to see it. Oh, it makes me happy.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: It's about as happy an ending as you can get
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: from a story like this. It's very It really reminds
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: me of like, you know, the Shushank redemption, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: like kind of like an Andy Duffrain, kind of putting
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: one over on the on the batties that tormented him
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the whole time, and the ending up with the upper hand. Yep, exactly, Mexico.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: That was. That's a great story too, and there's there
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: there are more details here. But we thought this was
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: such a breathtaking heist, and it's got an international conspiracy,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it's got geopolitics, it's got some chase scenes. This is great.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: This is a film that Noel Max and I would
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: make if it were not already a film, The Katala
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Rescue came out in two thousand seven, So so when
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: beat us to the punch just a little bit? Alright,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: who's in it? Man? I've never heard of this film?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Was it a was it a small picture? Let's see
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: it's directed by Lisa Sabini Harney who also wrote it. Uh.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I don't have too much information. I'm gonna have to
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: check it out and watch it. I think, Yeah, I'm
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: looking at the cast and it's not anybody that I recognize.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It may well have been finance uh in in Ireland.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: A lot of these uh cast members seem to be
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of Irish descent. But do you have the full cast
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of characters along with the narrator? And you know they
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: always talk about you know, your heroics will be honored
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: in song, and that is absolutely not only in in film,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: but in the song. So let's hear a little bit
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: of this. Uh. This Irish folk song of the katal
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: put A ship fund command was called the katar Hop
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: but they say she came up to Western and Australia
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and took six pole fenions away. All right, Max, you
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: said it had some uh had some vibes, right. I
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: like its commendation of like you know, traditional Irish Irish music,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but it's a lot of sea shanty in it too,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: which is really cool to me and I STI love
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the cadence of these types of songs that you need
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to see it right on the page. It's like a
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: noble whale ship and command called the Catalpa. They say,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it's like this format for this Irish folk songs. I've
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: been watching a lot of the Wire and you get
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of those. The cops are doing their funerals
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: in the in the Irish bar where they all hang out.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: But man, what a tale. I can't wait to watch
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the film. I hope it's good. I can't wait either.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's gonna be wonderful. And
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: we hope that you enjoyed. Uh this two part episode,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that's right, our higst Face ended up being a four
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: episode thing. Will return to heist again in the future.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: We would like to hear, as we said earlier, some
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of your favorite heist stories. We would like to know
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: also for Australians in the in the crowd ridiculous historians
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: living in Australia. Uh, do people talk about the Catalpa escape?
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Often is it something that everyone is aware of. You know,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: as we said, we haven't been to Australia yet. We
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: very much would like to go in the future. Would
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: be cool to go do some live shows there or
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: just the visit. Let us know what you think. And
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: while you're thinking about that, let's give some well deserved
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: thank yous, Oh my gosh, thank you super producer Max Williams,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed our theme researcher Extraordinariy Gabe and
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Lucier because it rhymes with extraordinary. Jonathan Strickland, the one
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and only quister. We missed you, Bud. We'll we'll have
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you on the show as soon as we can. We
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: can get in his schedule. He is a very busy guy,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know, all the acts of supervility, right, Just eat
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: up the calendar. Christopher Hastiota is here in spirit eaves
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Jeff Code out in the world on adventures you bam.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: This voyage has been an honor to to to to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: to to take with you, my friend. Oh likewise, back
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: at yougal, We'll see you next time, folks. For more
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.