by Joy Lefroy
A typical daily ration for sailors included half a kilo of ship’s biscuits, salted beef or pork, peas, oatmeal, butter and cheese. Sometimes fish were caught to supplement the diet and whenever the ship stopped in port fresh rations would be purchased. On board whaling ships the men also ate whale meat.
Ship’s biscuits were used until the 1900s when large ovens were put on board so that fresh bread could be baked daily.
8.2 STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Making ship’s biscuits
Ingredients
450g medium course stone-ground wholemeal flour or strong plain bakers flour
7g salt
water (enough to make a stiff dough)
Method
Combine all the ingredients and mix into a stiff dough.
Knead the dough, then leave to stand for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough so that it is roughly 10 mm thick.
Divide into biscuits shapes, using a pastry cutter if you like.
Put the biscuits onto a greased baking tray. Prick all over to let out any air when baking.
Preheat the oven to 150ºC (a moderate oven).
Bake for 45–60 minutes until rock hard.
Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack in a warm place to harden and dry out.
Eat if you dare!
Hard tack was sometimes baked twice, even four times, to dry it very thoroughly for long storage, and in the process it could become as hard as rock. No wonder that nicknames for hard tack include ‘tooth dullers’, ‘sheet iron’ and ‘molar breakers’!
BEWARE: Make sure you soften the biscuit before eating by soaking it in water or you may be making an emergency visit to the dentist!
9.1 INFORMATION: THE CATALPA SPIES
Two spies, John Breslin (calling himself James Collins) and Thomas Desmond (calling himself Tom Johnson), were sent from America to Fremantle, Western Australia, to coordinate the escape. Code words were prepared before they left so John Breslin could communicate with Captain Anthony when they had all arrived in Western Australia. Only two copies of the Catalpa Code Book containing the secret messages were made, one held by Captain Anthony and the other by John Breslin.
The coded messages were transmitted in Morse code—a series of dots and dashes representing each letter of the alphabet—using the new technology of telegraph in which messages travelled by electrical impulses over telegraph wires. This code was invented by American Samuel Morse in 1838. He designed it so that the most frequently used letters require the least effort—for example the code for ‘e’ is a dot and the code for ‘t’ is a dash.
When Captain Anthony sailed Catalpa into Bunbury harbour, 160km south of Fremantle, he was able to communicate with John Breslin in Fremantle by using the secret messages from the Code Book.
9.2 STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Morse code
Research Morse code and its inventor Samuel Morse.
In the Catalpa escape, Morse code messages were communicated by telegraph but there are other ways secret messages can be sent. Find out about some of these.
Activity 2: Invent your own code
Make up a code for yourself and your friends to keep a plan secret.
Here are two examples of the code used by Captain Anthony and the spies.
Code message
No news from New Bedford. Shall not come to Fremantle. Real message
No one suspects. Everyone thinks Catalpa is a whaling ship. Hurry down to Bunbury.
I shall certainly sail today. Suppose you will leave for York Monday morning. Goodbye. The rescue is on for Monday. York is code for Rockingham Beach.
Activity 3: Setting up a Morse code transmission system
Make a small hole in the bottom of two empty tin cans. Join the cans with about 20 metres of string poked through the hole in the base of each tin. Tie a knot at the end of the string and pull tight so the knot sits inside each can against the hole. Stretch and keep the string tight. One person puts their ear to the tin while the other person sends a message in Morse code by tapping their tin with a stick or pencil. (Hint: Work out a short message first. Convert into code using the table below. Tap quickly on the side of the tin for dots and more slowly for dashes.)
Alternatively, sit opposite your partner with a screen between you so you can’t see each other. Send messages to each other by tapping on the desk—quick light taps for dots and slower longer taps for dashes.
You can also send Morse mode by using a torch (flashlight). Take your message and a torch to the other side of the playground but make sure you can still see your partner. Send your message in short flashes for dots and longer flashes for dashes.
International Morse Code
9.3 INFORMATION: LIFE IN FREMANTLE PRISON IN THE MID 1800s
Reference: www.fremantleprison.com.au.
A re-enactment of life in Fremantle Prison. A prisoner is flogged with the cat-o’-nine-tails. Photographs: Mike Lefroy.
Convicts didn’t arrive in the Swan River Colony until 1850, twenty-one years after European settlement. The main reason Western Australia chose to change from a free to a penal colony was the need for cheap labour for public works and to help local settlers develop the region. During the period of transportation from 1850 until 1868 just over 9,700 convicts arrived in Western Australia.
The last ship to carry convicts to Western Australia was the Hougoumont with 280 convicts on board including 62 Fenian prisoners.
Once locked away in prison the daily routine was strictly controlled. This table shows how the convicts spent an average day in 1855 according to Fremantle Prison records:
Time
Activity
4.30 am Wake up bell
4.45 am Cells unlocked
5.25 am Officers and convicts muster in parade ground
5.30 am Convicts begin work
7.27 am Return from work for breakfast in cells
8.00 am Sick parade (small bell)
8.10 am Morning prayers (small bell)
8.25 am Convicts to work
11.57 am Bell rung to leave off work
12 noon Muster
12.15 pm Lunch in exercise yard or work site (small bell)
1.55 pm Convicts to work
5.50 pm Bell rung to leave off work
6.00 pm Supper in cells
7.15 pm Night officers’ parade
7.30 pm Bell rung for day officers to leave the prison
After the prison building was completed in 1859 many of the convicts worked on building projects in Fremantle and Perth and out in the country building roads. It was from a road-building project near Bunbury south of Perth that Fenian John Boyle O’Reilly escaped to America on the whaling ship Gazelle and became part of a group dedicated to freeing some of the other Fenians remaining in Fremantle.
Food was the most cherished part of the prisoner’s life and convicts in Fremantle ate well compared to colonists at the time. The daily ration for a convict in Fremantle was:
Half a litre of tea and a third of a kilogram of bread for breakfast.
Half a kilogram of meat and half a kilogram of potatoes (or sometimes vegetables or rice) plus a bowl of gruel or oatmeal soup for lunch.
Half a litre of tea and a quarter of a kilogram of bread for supper.
Convicts in work parties outside the prison received a better variety of food including cocoa with milk and molasses, cheese once a week on Sundays, mutton or beef, and suet pudding on Thursdays.
Up until 1876 (the year of the Catalpa escape) the convicts were only given one plate to hold their food. Extra food was poured into their towels. The convicts then had to use the towels after their weekly bath.
In 1876, Henry Maxwell Lefroy, Superintendent of Fremantle Prison, reported:
I have the honour to bring under your notice a practice obtaining in this prison which is not by any means consistent with that degree of cleanliness for which the Institution has the credit & which to my mind is an excessively dirty & objectionable
one. The practice I refer to is the mode of serving the prisoners’ dinners (lunch). This is done by placing the prescribed ration of meat & vegetables in tin plates which are handed to the men & on receipt by them hurriedly capsized onto towels (laid on the floor for their purpose) with which they dry their persons after washing; the plates being required for their soup or gruel. Thus the solid portion of their dinner is eaten off the towels, the liquid portion out of their plates. In order to remedy this I would strongly recommend that each prisoner be supplied with TWO instead of ONE tin plate at dinner, viz. 1 for the meat etc & the other for soup or gruel as the case may be.
Superintendent’s Letter Book, 11 December 1876, Battye Library.
Reference: www.fremantleprison.com.au
9.4 STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Vocabulary
Look up words you don’t understand in the information sheet.
Activity 2: Health
Prepare and eat a convict meal using the information in ‘Life in Fremantle Prison in the mid 1800s’. For further information about convict food go to www.fremantleprison.com.au and choose Educational Resources from the School/Group drop-down menu.
Activity 3: English—Drama/Creative writing
You are a television celebrity chef. Present the convict rations as a modern cooking show promoting your new restaurant The Convict Establishment as the ‘in’ place to eat. Use the information in ‘Life in Fremantle Prison in the mid 1800s’ and from www.fremantleprison.com.au.
Activity 4: Maths investigation
A Day in the Life...
Look at the daily schedule of prison life in the ‘Life in Fremantle Prison in the mid 1800s’. Compare the hours of work with the hours prisoners spent locked in their cell. Draw the day’s activities as a pie chart.
Activity 5: Investigation
Research the difference between capital and corporal punishment. Explain the difference between the two forms of corporal punishment used in Fremantle Prison. Find out when this form of punishment stopped. (Hint: type ‘Fremantle Prison corporal punishment’ into your search engine.)
In Fremantle Prison in the late 1800s, work parties were formed. Some of the jobs are listed below. Choose one of the jobs then research and describe a typical day in your life as a convict.
Carpenter Saddler Picking coir Painter
Tailor Lime kiln worker Baker Cleaner
Shoe maker Hammock maker Blacksmith Gardener
Quarry man Mason
Activity 6: Maths
In the 1890s, after a royal commission, the floor space of the prison cells at Fremantle Prison was doubled (from 1.2 metres x 2.1 metres to 2.4 metres x 2.1 metres) by knocking down the middle wall. Each cell then had in it a hammock and blanket, small table, stool, cupboard and a bucket. Mark out the size of the original and double-sized cells in the classroom or playground.
Imagine this is your own space for ten hours at a time. How would you organise your space and what else would you want to have with you? Draw a floor plan of your arrangements.
10.1 INFORMATION: NAVIGATING BY THE STARS
Measuring latitude
For thousands of years navigators have been finding their way by the sun, moon and stars. This is known as celestial navigation. Ancient navigators in the northern hemisphere knew how to find their latitude—their position north or south of the equator—by using the angle of the sun above the horizon at midday and the angle of the North Star (Polaris) at night. Polaris stays almost motionless in the sky so it is a valuable aid to navigation.
At the start of the Catalpa’s voyage Captain Anthony would have used Polaris to help him determine his latitude at night. But once across the equator he would have had a more difficult job as there is no equivalent ‘motionless’ star in the southern hemisphere. He would instead have looked to the Southern Cross to guide him south.
The Southern Cross
The four bright stars of the Southern Cross can be seen at the top right of the page. The constellation’s distinctive shape is easily located because of its brightness and proximity of the stars to each other.
In the past the constellation was an important navigational aid for people travelling on land and sea. The Southern Cross can also be used to estimate the time because it rotates across the sky like the hands of a clock.
Once you are familiar with finding the Southern Cross, it can be used to work out the direction of south. Try Activity 1 to learn more.
10.2 STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Using the Southern Cross to find south
Some stars travel in a large arc across the sky, then disappear below the horizon. Other stars never ‘set’ below the horizon but trace a circle in the sky. In the southern hemisphere the centre of these circles is a point called the South Celestial Pole. This part of the sky is directly above the South Pole of the Earth.
Visit the Museum of Victoria website at http://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/education and follow this path:
Astronomy > Celestial Navigation > Student activities 1–6
Download the activity. In the evening, follow the instructions to use the Southern Cross and the pointer stars to find true south. Suitable for students in Years 5–8.
Activity 2: Navigational instruments
Using internet or library research find out about the instruments Captain Anthony would have used to calculate his position (particularly the sextant and the chronometer).
Research modern navigation techniques that use GPS (Global Positioning Systems). Explain how they work.
Many centuries before Captain Anthony sailed, Arab navigators used a very simple device—a kamal—to find their position at sea. Visit http://education.jewelofmuscat.tv/13-16/science and find out about this ancient instrument. Click on the Classroom Activity to download directions for making your own kamal. (Source: Jewel of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman)
11.1 TIMELINE: THE MORNING OF THE ESCAPE, 17 APRIL 1876
At Fremantle Prison
5.00am
In the prison, reveille (a sound, usually a bugle call, to wake the prisoners) is followed by breakfast, a parade inspection then assignment to work parties. The Fenians are assigned to their jobs at the following locations:
Martin Hogan—painting Fauntleroy House outside the Prison
James Wilson—working at Prison chaplain’s stables
Thomas Darragh—digging potatoes outside the Prison
Michael Harrington—working on the South Jetty at South Bay
Robert Cranston and Thomas Hassett—assigned to the prison storehouse but allowed outside the walls while their boss, the prison accountant, has breakfast
While the first four all go to their respective jobs, Cranston and Hassett tell the warder at the gate they have been assigned to dig potatoes. Being well-behaved, they are waved through. Hassett goes to join Darragh, and Cranston heads for the jetty to get Harrington to help him move furniture in the Governor’s House. Warder Booler sends them on their way.
From the jetty, Cranston and Harrington walk back east towards the prison, picking up Wilson on the way. The three then walk past the potato gardens: Hassett and Darragh sling their spades over their shoulders and follow, but not too closely.
Hogan at Fauntleroy House sees them and also follows, his brush and pail in hand. The two groups then move towards the rendezvous on Rockingham Road, hoping the guards on the prison walls aren’t being too watchful.
8.15am
The six Fenians meet Breslin and Desmond, leap into the wagons they have brought and charge away down the road to Rockingham.
At the Emerald Isle Hotel, the streets of Fremantle and the road to Rockingham Beach
6.00am
Breslin and Desmond meet up and get two wagons ready. McCarthy heads south and Walsh heads north to cut telegraph wires. These two Irish men are from New South Wales. They came from Sydney with another Irishman, John King. They brought £4000 with them to help with the escape.
6.30am
Thomas Bre
nnan (an Irishman who came uninvited from the USA) heads for Rockingham with a third wagon loaded with clothes and weapons.
7.45am
Breslin and Desmond move into position with the wagons on the road to Rockingham. They will wait for the Fenians until 9am if necessary.
8.15am
The Fenian prisoners meet Breslin and Desmond. They leap into the wagons and charge away to Rockingham.
9.00am
King heads for Rockingham on horseback. There is no sign in Fremantle of the escape being discovered.
10.30am
The escape is discovered in Fremantle. Troops are sent to Rockingham.
11.00am
The wagons arrive on the beach at Rockingham. Captain Anthony, the six Fenians, Breslin, Desmond, King and Brennan with the five oarsmen all head to sea in the whaleboat. The boat usually carries a crew of six so it is seriously overcrowded.
11.30am
Troopers, police and trackers arrive on the beach. Some reports say shots are fired. By this time the whaleboat is two miles off the beach and out of range of the troopers’ fire.
11.2 STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Interpreting the timeline
Read through the timeline of the morning of the escape and choose one of the following tasks:
You are a reporter for the Fremantle Herald. Write your report of the escape from the early morning in Fremantle to the troopers firing on the whaleboat from Rockingham beach. Don’t forget to include interviews and eyewitness accounts of the escape.
Use the timeline to make a documentary film or podcast of the escape.
Use the timeline as a guide to create and act out a dramatic re-enactment of the escape.
