History
Today In History
This Day In History
Australia
Irish Rebellion

Catalpa Rescue

BackStory

5 min readApr 17, 2022

Prologue

After chasing the convicts for two days all they could get a hold of was a letter written to the British Governor of Western Australia, boasting about the prison escape of six of the high-profile Fenians that had been captured ten years back. The plot of the Catalpa rescue is no less than the storyline of some Netflix movie.

April 17- 19, 1876 might have been an ordinary day for Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and the United States but who knew that a single event was going to welcome a rattle in all four nations. Let’s explore the backstory of the most dramatic and successful prison break in Australian history.

Backstory

Ultimately, it all started with a letter sent from inside an Australian “tomb,” a document that prompted a US gang to sail some 20,000 kilometers on the ocean to complete what could be considered one of the most outrageous prison escapes in Australian history.

But why were these Irish men arrested? Well, from 1865 to 1867, the British authorities were in their full form to suppress the Irish independence movement. They rounded up supporters of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and transported 62 of these men to the penal colony of Western Australia where they were convicted of various crimes, such as treason-felony and outright rebellion. Sixteen of these were members of the British Army who had served the government under Queen Victoria in India, China, Syria, and South Africa. However, their loyalty to the crown came under question when posted in Ireland, they joined the Fenians. Of course, it wasn’t just these sixteen men. There were about 8,000 of the 26,000 regular troops sanctioned in Ireland.

The Fenian Rising was doomed to failure and eventually, the captured Fenians were sent to the Convict Establishment on the convict ship Hougoumont to Fremantle on January 9, 1868. Many of the convicts were pardoned in 1869, followed by another round of pardons issued in 1871, after which only a few were left in the prison.

This small group of ‘military’ Fenians, living in the Australian ‘tomb’ found a way to escape. In 1874, James Wilson, one of the seven high-profile Fenians who had been convicted of treason, wrote a letter to John Devoy who was also a Fenian who became a journalist in New York City after being exiled to America. Along with Devoy came another Fenian, John Boyle O’Reilly who had earlier escaped from Bunbury and was now a poet, journalist, and editor of the Catholic newspaper, Boston Pilot.

The guilt of escaping alone while his fellow convicts were still suffering was too much for O’Reilly and that is when he decided to implore his fellow exile John Devoy to rally the Clan na Gael and mount a rescue attempt. With this, they began formulating the rescue plan. The initial and original plan was to charter a boat and sail for Australia with armed men. However, after enough thought, the ‘force’ plan was replaced with ‘stealth’.

Convincing George Smith Anthony, a Protestant sea captain, that the mission was for universal freedom and liberty, they continued with their plan. The whaler Catalpa was set out to sea as if going on a routine whaling voyage, keeping the rescue plan secret even from the crew. In addition to this, they needed help from Australia as well and for that, they reached out to a Fenian secret agent, John James Breslin who would, according to the plan, learn about the Convict Establishment by going to Fremantle acting as an American millionaire, James Collins.

On the Fateful Day

Finally, on 17 April 1876, all six men, Thomas Darragh, Thomas Hassett, Robert Cranston, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, and James Wilson headed towards Breslin, successfully getting permission to get out of the wall of the Establishment. James Jeffery Roche, the seventh Fenian was deliberately left behind for he had once betrayed the Fenians 10 years ago and could not be trusted again. Getting on the carriage that Breslin had arranged, the escapees made a frantic 20-mile horse-drawn dash for the rowboat.

On the other hand, British guards became aware of the escape and immediately set out for the hunt. A coast guard cutter and a steamer had been commandeered by the Royal Navy to intercept the rowboat.

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The mission was risky; even the storm seemed to be on the British side. No one thought that the small Catalpa would make it through the storm but to their surprise a screw steamer Georgette was waiting for them. Fenians dashed for the whaler, with the British cutter joining the race. The luck wasn’t on the Irish men’s side. What saved them was the American flag. Anthony challenged the cutter to fire on the American flag. Although the British followed Georgette for another hour, they were reluctant to fire on an American ship in international waters.

Aftermath

It took four months for the Catalpa to arrive in New York, welcomed by a cheering crowd of thousands. John Devoy, John Breslin, and George Anthony were hailed as heroes while the dreamy prison break story spread around the world like a forest fire. Although the British accused the United States government of “fermenting terrorism”, the escape was a success. The tale of this daring escape inspired generations of Irish nationalists.

Glossary

Irish Republican Brotherhood: (1858–1924) a secret oath-bound fraternal organization in Ireland formed with the aim of establishing an “independent democratic republic”.
Fenians: members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood.
Fenian Rising: a 1867 rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The rebellion was organized by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The rebellion was crushed by British and most of the rebels were arrested.
Convict Establishment: also known as the Fremantle Prison, was a prison in Western Australia, opened in 1855. Today it stands as a World Heritage Site in Fremantle, attracting tourists, academicians, and commercial ventures.
Clan na Gael: the Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was formed as a successor to the Fenian Brotherhood.

References and Attributions