290 WHALING 



San Francisco in September, 1875, for Australia; associated 

 with him was Captain Thomas Desmond, and in Australia they 

 were to meet one John King. These three were the active agents 

 of the escape by land, Breslin being in charge. Arrived at 

 Fremantle, Breslin separated from Desmond and assumed with 

 his new name the character of a man of wealth, in search of 

 investments. He was soon established in the pleasantest of 

 social relations with the Governor, and meanwhile he made 

 the acquaintance of an ex-prisoner through whom he was 

 able to notify Wilson (whose appeal to John Devoy had orig- 

 inated the whole plan of rescue) how matters were going 

 forward. Two other Irish revolutionary agents volunteered 

 their services and agreed to cut the telegraph wires after the 

 escape. 



It was Breslin's plan that with a whaleboat Captain Anthony 

 meet the escaping prisoners at Rockingham, some twenty miles 

 south of Fremantle, on a day to be appointed, and take them 

 out to the Catalpa, which should lie far enough off the coast to 

 attract no attention. Captain Anthony went to Fremantle and 

 Rockingham to see how the land lay, and, having arranged 

 with Breslin a code for communicating by telegraph, returned to 

 Bunbury. 



After a series of accidents which nearly wrecked the plot, 

 Captain Anthony sailed on Saturday, April 15th. On Sunday 

 afternoon, in a boat manned with a picked crew, and with a 

 supply of food and water, he left the Catalpa, and shortly after 

 dark he landed on the beach at the appointed place. He did 

 not know until daylight next morning that, by the scantiest 

 possible margin, he had escaped wrecking his boat on an out- 

 lying reef. 



At approximately eight o'clock in the morning, Breslin, with 

 two traps, each with a team, was waiting a little less than a 

 mile from the prison, when the convicts to be rescued came in 

 two groups of three down the Rockingham Road. By good 

 conduct the six had earned the rank of ''constable," which per- 

 mitted them to communicate with one another, and they were 

 working outside the prison walls. There was a seventh Fenian 



