Bibliograph

The ship that never was, the greatest escape story of Australian colonial history, Adam Courtenay

Type

Label

The ship that never was, the greatest escape story of Australian colonial history, Adam Courtenay

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-323)

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The ship that never was

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Adam Courtenay

Sub title

the greatest escape story of Australian colonial history

Summary

In 1828, cockney sailor and chancer James Porter, was convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs and transported to Van Diemen's Land. After several escape attempts from the notorious penal colony, Porter, who told authorities he was a 'beer-machine maker', was sent to Macquarie Harbour, known in Van Diemen's Land as 'hell on earth'. Many tried to escape, but few had succeeded. But when Governor George Arthur announced that it would be closed and its prisoners moved to the new penal station of Port Arthur, Porter, along with a motley crew of other prisoners, pulled off an audacious escape. Wresting control of the ship they'd been building to transport them to Port Arthur, the escapees sailed to Chile. What happened next is stranger than fiction, a fitting outcome for this true-life picaresque tale

Target audience

adult

Creator