Welcome to Episode 7 of the Catalpa Escape Podcast Series.
In Episode 1, our narrator, Margo O’Byrne, sets the scene for the famous 1876 Catalpa Escape of the ‘Military’ Fenians from just south of Fremantle, Western Australia.
Episode 2 deals with the raising the money through the auspices of Clan na Gael – the Irish Association in America – and how John Devoy became the key plotter of the escape.
In Episode 3, we find ourselves in New Bedford in key meetings of key men. Devoy, Goff, Reynolds, Hathaway, Richardson – and George Smith Anthony. And Anthony’s wife Emma. A suitable ship needs to be found and purchased for the Fremantle mission. A Captain to sail her and control the mission needs to be found. Enter Anthony. The Catalpa is spotted. Reynolds takes out mortgage on his house to purchase the Catalpa.
In Episode 4, Margo O’Byrne explains how the Clan-Na-Gael rescue committee needed to find a way to realise the funds to pay for the rescue attempt. Richardson and Hathaway move the Catalpa to New Bedford and prepare it for the voyage. Captain Anthony selects a crew. And it’s time, to think about who will be on the ground in Fremantle to coordinate the final moments of the escape of the Fenians. And you get to meet Duggan, Brennan, Breslin and Desmond.
In Episode 5, Margot relates just how the Catalpa voyage progressed on its way to the Azores, then Tenerife, and onward. Who knew just where they were actually heading? Did Captain Anthony have to take Brennan aboard along the way? And just what luck did Captain Anthony have when he crossed a British ship on the Indian Ocean south of Port Elizabeth?
In Episode 6, Margot asks what the Fenians in Fremantle were up to while the Catalpa crew were on the high seas catching whales and then encountering the Ocean Beauty and meeting with Captain Cousins in the Indian Ocean and receiving maps of the coastline of Western Australia, and the two US operatives, Breslin and Desmond, were aboard the speedy mail steamer, Cyphranes bound for Sydney. Were the Freo Fenians aware of any of these events? How many of them were still incarcerated? Were they kept locked up inside the Establishment?
In this episode, Episode 7, Margot O’Byrne takes us to Fremantle with the arrival there of Breslin/Mr Collins and Desmond/Mr Johnson in mid-November 1875. At this point they are expecting the Catalpa under Captain Anthony’s command to arrive late January/early February. What does each do? Who do they meet? Does Mr Collins make the acquaintance of Acting Comptroller General of The Establishment, Fauntleroy? Does he make contact with the Military Fenians? If so, how? And surely there’s a ‘love interest’ in all of this? Could it be Mary Tondut? And what has happened to their new friend King who they left behind in Sydney? Such a story. Don’t miss a word of it!
You can read the original article for Episode 7 on Fremantle Shipping News here.
