The ship that never was :
Courtenay, Adam,
The ship that never was : the greatest escape story of Australian colonial history / Adam Courtenay. - Sydney, NSW : ABC Books, 2018. - 323 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm.
ABC Books.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-323)
The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller In 1828, James Porter, sailor, chancer, illywhacker, found himself on a ship bound for Van Diemen's Land, having been convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs. After several escape attempts from the notorious penal colony, Porter, who told authorities he was a 'beer-machine maker', was sent to Sarah Island, known in Van Diemen's Land as 'hell on earth'. Many tried to escape the island, few succeeded. But when Governor George Arthur announced that Sarah Island would closed down and the prisoners moved to the new penal station of Port Arthur, Porter, along with a motley crew of other prisoners, pulled off an audacious escape. Commandeering the ship they'd been building to transport them to Port Arthur, the escapees sailed all the way to Chile. What happened next is stranger than fiction, a fitting outcome for this true-life picaresque tale. The Ship That Never Was is an entertaining and rollicking story from our past by an exciting new voice in popular history. James Porter, whose memoirs were the inspiration for Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life, is an original Australian larrikin whose ingenuity, ability to talk himself out of a tight corner and refusal to buckle under authority makes him an irresistible anti-hero in the tradition of Ned Kelly.
9780733338571 (paperback)
Porter, James, active 1823-1843.
Porter, James (active 1823-1843)
1800-1899
Convicts--History--Norfolk Island--19th century--Biography.
Transportation of convicts--History.--Great Britain
Escapes--History--Australia--Tasmania--19th century.
Convicts--History--Norfolk Island--19th century.
Prisoners, Transportation of--History--Great Britain--19th century.
Prisoners--History--Norfolk Island--19th century.
Penal transportation--History--Great Britain--19th century.
Penal colonies--Norfolk Island--Biography.
Penal colonies.
Penal transportation.
Prisoners.
Norfolk Island--History--19th century.
Australia--Norfolk Island.
Great Britain.
Australian
Biography.
History.
994.402092
The ship that never was : the greatest escape story of Australian colonial history / Adam Courtenay. - Sydney, NSW : ABC Books, 2018. - 323 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm.
ABC Books.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-323)
The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller In 1828, James Porter, sailor, chancer, illywhacker, found himself on a ship bound for Van Diemen's Land, having been convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs. After several escape attempts from the notorious penal colony, Porter, who told authorities he was a 'beer-machine maker', was sent to Sarah Island, known in Van Diemen's Land as 'hell on earth'. Many tried to escape the island, few succeeded. But when Governor George Arthur announced that Sarah Island would closed down and the prisoners moved to the new penal station of Port Arthur, Porter, along with a motley crew of other prisoners, pulled off an audacious escape. Commandeering the ship they'd been building to transport them to Port Arthur, the escapees sailed all the way to Chile. What happened next is stranger than fiction, a fitting outcome for this true-life picaresque tale. The Ship That Never Was is an entertaining and rollicking story from our past by an exciting new voice in popular history. James Porter, whose memoirs were the inspiration for Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life, is an original Australian larrikin whose ingenuity, ability to talk himself out of a tight corner and refusal to buckle under authority makes him an irresistible anti-hero in the tradition of Ned Kelly.
9780733338571 (paperback)
Porter, James, active 1823-1843.
Porter, James (active 1823-1843)
1800-1899
Convicts--History--Norfolk Island--19th century--Biography.
Transportation of convicts--History.--Great Britain
Escapes--History--Australia--Tasmania--19th century.
Convicts--History--Norfolk Island--19th century.
Prisoners, Transportation of--History--Great Britain--19th century.
Prisoners--History--Norfolk Island--19th century.
Penal transportation--History--Great Britain--19th century.
Penal colonies--Norfolk Island--Biography.
Penal colonies.
Penal transportation.
Prisoners.
Norfolk Island--History--19th century.
Australia--Norfolk Island.
Great Britain.
Australian
Biography.
History.
994.402092
