The Ship that Never Was

It may be that if you are reading this you have visited Tasmania and in particular Sarah Island which lies in Macquarie Harbour, a place once known in the early 19th Century as hell on earth - the entrance to the Harbour actually being named as Hell's Gates. And perhaps you have stayed in the nearby town of Strahan and either seen the movie or the longest-running play in Australia which is called The Ship that Never Was. 

This book was inspired by that play but goes much further than comedy and Disney-esque entertainment as it delves deeply into the real and truly amazing story of the ten convicts who stole the brig Frederick and then sailed it out of Hell's Gates all the way across the Pacific and through the dangerous latitudes of the Southern Ocean to finally arrive in Valdivia in Chile.

The prominent figure in this adventure was Police Prisoner No. 324, James Porter aka James Connor aka Don Santiago. Porter wrote various versions of his memoirs and it is these on which author Adam Courtenay draws primarily, but he has rounded out the book with facts from solid historical research.

It is almost impossible for us to believe the conditions and treatment under which Porter and his mates fought so hard for their freedom. The one-eyed Porter carried scars all over his body, on his ankles and legs from the brutal chains and irons, on his back the evidence of more than 300 floggings. Originally transported for stealing furs and silk, he still managed to find time to joke, to say that his real profession was a "beer machine maker".

None of the men were properly qualified sailors or navigators, what they knew they had mostly been learned while slaving as convicts in coastal journeys and on Sarah Island where there was a thriving trade in boat-building. Frederick had barely been completed, her timbers were unseasoned Huon pine and the chances of her making it even as far as New Zealand were doubtful, yet she proved her worth, only to be scuttled by her crew as they approached South America.

In Valdivia, recently freed from the colonial oppression of Spain, the escapees were welcomed and lauded as heroes while Governor Arthur in Van Diemen's Land was furious and their presence in Chile almost caused a major diplomatic crisis between that country and Great Britain.

While the two countries wrangled for ten years, this motley bunch made lives for themselves in Chile, some married and had children and when things got too hot with Royal Navy warships drawing ever closer, some escaped to other lands never to be heard from again.  

Eventually only four convicts remained to be re-captured. After enduring horrendous re-imprisonment in England on the hulks, back they went to Van Diemen's Land to be tried and sentenced. The details of their trial provides some fascinating legal arguments as to what constituted mutiny and piracy and because the Frederick had never been registered, she truly was "the ship that never was". 

Courtenay's conclusions on the one-eyed Porter whom history has hitherto treated as a "scallywag and a scoundrel, a ne'er do well ... [his memoirs] the literary equivalent of the Artful Dodger narrating Oliver Twist ..." have provided us with a far more complex individual.

"Like many of us, he was incapable of forethought, context, planning or detail. But when it came to tenacity and courage, Porter was practically peerless. Some say Porter deftly marketed his doings for posterity, and they may be right - after all we're still discussing him more than two hundred years after his birth. ... his essential story remains a valuable addition to colonial history."

Meticulously researched and well-written, this is an all-round fantastic read that brings history to light in a most entertaining and informative way. Highly recommended
5 stars.


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