Katedra Anglistiky a Amerikanistiky Bakalářská Diplomová
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Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce Zuzana Revi Zuzana ľaková 2008 2008 ľaková 2008 Zuzana Reviľaková Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Zuzana Reviľaková The First Fleet and the Escape of Mary Bryant Bachelor ’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph. D. 2008 2 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 3 Table of Contents Table of contents …………………………………………………………………....... 4 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………....... 6 2. The Criminality Issue ……………………………………………………………… 8 3. Decision-making …………………………………………………………………... 11 4. The Voyage ………………………………………………………………………... 14 4.1. The Conditions on the Ships …………………………………………… 16 4.1.1. Space ......................................................................................... 17 4.1.2. Food .......................................................................................... 20 4.1.3. Did They Deserve This? ........................................................... 22 5. Landing at Botany Bay ............................................................................................. 24 5.1. Founding of the Settlement ..................................................................... 24 5.1.1. The New Place .......................................................................... 26 5.1.2. The Women Arrive ................................................................... 27 5.1.3. New Rules ................................................................................. 29 5.1.4. The Relations with the Aboriginals .......................................... 30 5.1.5. The Attempts to Become Self-Supporting ................................ 31 5.1.6. The Relationships Among the People ....................................... 32 5.2. Desires for Escape ................................................................................... 33 5.2.1. The Attempts ............................................................................ 33 5.2.2. A Successful Escape ................................................................. 35 6. Mary Bryant’s Escape ............................................................................................... 37 6.1. The Preparations ...................................................................................... 37 6.2. Leaving the colony .................................................................................. 38 6.3. The Voyage ............................................................................................. 40 4 6.4. Timor ....................................................................................................... 41 6.5. Britain ...................................................................................................... 44 7. The New Hope .......................................................................................................... 46 8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 47 Works Cited and Consulted .......................................................................................... 50 5 1. Introduction The aim of this work is to give a brief account of the first convict transport to Botany Bay in Australia. The work consist of three parts and gives information about the First Fleet; their voyage to the colony, the founding of a new settlement and eventually about the great escape of Mary Bryant and her comrades from the place they had thought to be hell with no future. The information needed is gained from several sources, one of them being a film inspired by Mary Bryant’s heroic story. Firstly, the work describes the situation in the 18 th century Britain. It describes the problems with extremely high rate of criminality and the need to find a solution to the situation. It gives reasons for the need of a new penal colony where the country could send its criminals. Then it goes on briefly describing the process of decision- making; the government had to decide where the new penal colony should be found. They needed to find a place that would be politically advantageous and where the convicts would be able to survive and eventually become a self-supporting colony. Secondly, there is the voyage to the colony depicted; the conditions, which the convicts were transported in, the food, the space they had to stay in, the attitude of the crew and the arrival at the colony. Then there is the account of the life in the colony; of its problems as are hunger and illnesses, low harvests, lack of linen and the problems with the Aboriginals, but also some minor successes, for example building the first brick house. Eventually there is the great escape of Mary Bryant and her comrades described. The story of Mary Bryant is described in every chapter, because she experienced the whole voyage and the life in the colony. Although it is just a piece of fiction based on a true story and not a documentary, parts of the film are used to give a better account of the events. The film compares and contrasts the information in a way no other source 6 used in this work does. It describes the differences between the convicts and the officers and shows what the officers thought about the convicts and how they treated them. Mary’s escape was one of the first successful escapes. It took place in 1790s. There were her two children, her husband and seven other people with her. Her story became extremely popular not only because of her bravery, but also because of the luck that these people had. They stole a small boat and sailed all the way from Sydney to Timor, which is about 3,250 miles. And they were lucky enough to survive the voyage. One could call this a miracle, because it was nearly impossible to survive such a journey: “No one since James Cook in the Endeavour, twenty-one years before, had sailed all the way up the eastern coast, through the treacherous Barrier Reef, and lived to tell about it” (Hughes 205). Because of the story being so breathtaking, popular and unbelievable, in 2005 it was made into a film. The film was directed by Peter Andrikidis and it got the title “The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant“. It shows the journey of the First Fleet, their life in their new settlement and then the escape of Mary, her family and the seven other people. I chose this topic, because I find it very interesting and because The First Fleet was actually a cornerstone of the colony and thus of the whole nation of Australians as we know it today. Dunn describes these people as the ‘Founders of Australia’: “The first eleven of these ships are today known as the First Fleet and contained the convicts and marines that are now acknowledged as the Founders of Australia” (Dunn and McCreadie). Although, by Ward (1992), these people were thieves, murderers and prostitutes and according to the British society of that time these people were garbage, inferior creatures impossible to change that no one wanted to have in Britain and who only were good as a labour force, they helped to create a new nation that today, after more than 200 years later cannot be called a nation of criminals or convicts. 7 2. The Criminality Issue In 1783, after the loss of the thirteen colonies in America that decided to form a nation – the United States of America, the British government had to find a suitable place for the rising number of prisoners: “The matter was urgent because, as it seemed to contemporaries, crime and criminals had been multiplying at an alarming rate. Throughout the eighteenth century the “agricultural revolution” transformed the face of the English countryside” (Ward 47). Ward (1992) says that because of this revolution many people lost their jobs and were not able to provide food for themselves and their families. In order to solve their situation, many of them moved from villages to towns where they worked for a little money. He also claims (1992) that many of these people were not able to find any job, but because they wanted to survive they had to find a solution; a way to survive. “Those who could not find work often had to steal or starve” (Ward 47). As the film shows, they wanted to survive. By Ward (1992), in the 18th century, the rate of criminality in England was rising very quickly, due to a great famine that spread among the poorest people. These, in order to survive, were often forced to steal. Although the punishments were quite strict: “Between 1688 […] and 1788 […] the number of capital crimes in the English statute books rose from about fifty to two hundred” (Ward 48), Ward (1992) says that poor people kept stealing, pick pocketing or committing other, mainly minor crimes, in order to provide food for themselves and their families. He also (1992) gives the description of the way the British society decided to solve the problem. The problem should have been solved by making the punishments even more severe; every one who stole something that was worth more than a shilling had to be sentenced to death. But, Ward (1992) adds, this did not prevent the poorest people from stealing and committing other crimes. Although there were Police forces in Britain, these were inefficient and the 8 amount of people brought into court was low (in comparison to the amount of committed crimes). Because of the severity of punishments,