The Catalpa Rescue: A Whaling Ship's 1876 Fenian Prison Break

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In 1874 a prisoner named James Wilson smuggled a letter out of Fremantle Prison in Western Australia, describing life there as a living death and begging his friends to act before his mind broke. It reached John Devoy in New York, and what followed was one of the boldest prison breaks of the 19th century. Rather than attempt an armed assault against the British Empire, Devoy, John Boyle O'Reilly, and the Clan na Gael bought a merchant ship called the Catalpa, fitted it out as a whaler, and sent it around the world as cover.

This episode treats the rescue as a logistical puzzle spread across three continents. Captain George Smith Anthony left Massachusetts in April 1875 and actually hunted whales for five months to keep the alibi intact. On shore, John J. Breslin posed as a wealthy American businessman while Thomas Desmond took work as a wheelwright and arranged to cut the telegraph lines. On April 17, 1876, six Fenians bolted from their work details, and the plan met a storm, a police cutter, and an armed steamer.

The conspirators paid $5,500 for the Catalpa and hired a crew of sailors who had no idea they were part of a prison break.
The ship's chronometer broke early in the voyage, so Captain Anthony crossed the oceans by dead reckoning.
Breslin charmed the colonial governor into giving him a tour of the prison he planned to rob, and began an affair with hotel chambermaid Mary Tondut.
After a night in a storm-battered whaleboat, the escapees reached the Catalpa moments ahead of a police cutter full of armed men.
When the steamer Georgette fired a warning shot, Anthony pointed to the American flag and warned that firing on his ship in international waters would be an act of war.

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