Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. We're continuing our dive into heist.
Speaker 1: We're still going through our hist phase. This is part
Speaker 1: two of an infamous prison break. Uh, and we cannot
Speaker 1: wait to get to the rest of the story with you.
Speaker 1: That's Max Williams, our one only super producer. I'm Ben
Speaker 1: noel Man this one. I'm into it. It's so cinematic.
Speaker 1: Oh boys, what ever? Um, And we're actually getting into
Speaker 1: some of the most cinematic parts of the story in
Speaker 1: today's episode. So we don't know, we don't need to
Speaker 1: preamble this and the amount, let's get right to it.
Speaker 1: They start to gather funds together, like like cash money
Speaker 1: to put together the resources they need to pull off
Speaker 1: this rescue. Yes, yeah, they do, and they get thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars together pretty quickly. Uh. And then they also
Speaker 1: they start to make their plans. So what they're gonna
Speaker 1: do is they're going to charter a boat they're gonna
Speaker 1: sail down to Australia and then they're gonna arm themselves.
Speaker 1: And about a dozen of them are gonna go spring
Speaker 1: the Finians from the joint. That was the original plan,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, come in there with shock
Speaker 1: and awe, the roar of thunder and firearms. But as
Speaker 1: they thought about it, more and more the voices maybe
Speaker 1: maybe it's smarter if we use a little stealth. So
Speaker 1: maybe we make this less of an assault and more
Speaker 1: of a way for it high east. Yeah, much more
Speaker 1: of an ocean's eleven than a suicide squad situation. There
Speaker 1: it is. That's a good comparison. So so what do
Speaker 1: you need in the heist? You need your specialist picture.
Speaker 1: The montage moment, Uh, Devoy is walking around clooney brad
Speaker 1: Pitt style and he's he's picking up his people. Uh.
Speaker 1: He finds a guy named George Smith Anthony not a Catholic,
Speaker 1: a Protestant sea captain who has been in the whaling game.
Speaker 1: And he convinces this guy, He's like, look past the politics,
Speaker 1: past the you know details here, George, this rescue mission
Speaker 1: is a mission of universal freedom and liberty. And much
Speaker 1: like our boy O'Reilly you know, found help from a
Speaker 1: a kindly whaling captain. Um, the same thing was true here.
Speaker 1: This is not the same whaling captain. This is an
Speaker 1: area that would have seen a lot of traffic from
Speaker 1: whaling vessels due to, you know, the high density of
Speaker 1: wales in this part of the ocean. Um. But I
Speaker 1: guess whaling captains are by nature sort of like down
Speaker 1: for criminality. Down down, yeah, down down to down to
Speaker 1: help out some convicts. And I don't know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a local the whaler's code. I don't know. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking to my head, ohalien captains, the original Juggalos.
Speaker 1: But that's maybe not accurate. But it's a fun picture anyhow.
Speaker 1: You're right, you're absolutely right. Now. So this captain's on board.
Speaker 1: George is on board, and he gets the instructions from
Speaker 1: the gang. They say, look, you're gonna go out to
Speaker 1: see on this whaler, the Catalpa C A T A
Speaker 1: l P A, And you're gonna you're gonna act as
Speaker 1: though you are on just a routine whaling voyage. Nothing
Speaker 1: abnormal about this. Uh, you're not gonna tell your crew
Speaker 1: what's really going on. You are not to tell them
Speaker 1: this is a rescue mission. Because Devoid thinks back on
Speaker 1: the rebellion, you know, and he says, okay, you gotta
Speaker 1: watch out for snitches, basically, so he doesn't want anybody
Speaker 1: in the crew spilling the beans or dropping the ambergriss
Speaker 1: on these folks. So he says, you're gonna keep it secret,
Speaker 1: keep it safe, and you're gonna need to return with
Speaker 1: a full load of whale oil to recoup all these expenses.
Speaker 1: The mission is already getting crazy expensive, by the way, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really is. I believe we are nearing the twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollar mark. Shall we boop that new listeners? The
Speaker 1: boop implies, um, we're running it through the handy dandy
Speaker 1: inflation calculator. Twenty thousand dollars in eighteen late eighteen hundreds time,
Speaker 1: by today's standards, would have been three hundred forty four
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Holy cow, that's a lot. That's a lot.
Speaker 1: And this is that's just a rough estimate. It's actually
Speaker 1: a little over that. But the interesting thing about this
Speaker 1: is when you get the sense of it, when you
Speaker 1: get a sense of how much that is in today's money, Uh,
Speaker 1: you can see why one guy had even mortgaged his
Speaker 1: house to get these dudes out of that Australian prison.
Speaker 1: This enormous expense chartering a whaling vessel enacting this conspiracy.
Speaker 1: It's still had some pieces missing because Devoie had to
Speaker 1: ask himself, well, what are we gonna do when we
Speaker 1: actually get on the ground in Australia. How we We've
Speaker 1: got to get some help there, that's right. So they
Speaker 1: employed the help of Mr John James Breslin, who was
Speaker 1: a bearded fellow and Finnian agent. His whole job in
Speaker 1: this prison break was to get to Fremantle ahead of
Speaker 1: the whaling ship the Katapa, and pretend to be an
Speaker 1: American millionaire named James Collins. He had to keep the
Speaker 1: James in there for whatever reason. You know, sometimes having
Speaker 1: like improv shows, like people will use their same first
Speaker 1: name for their characters just makes it easier. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that was maybe that was the logic
Speaker 1: behind it. But James Collins is the student that he's using,
Speaker 1: and he was meant to see what he could see
Speaker 1: do a little bit of recon right, yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 1: in in our high screw, right this, in our high screw,
Speaker 1: our whaler George is kind of our getaway driver. He's
Speaker 1: our transporter, you know, Jason Statham style and Breslin here,
Speaker 1: excuse me, James Collins millionaire. He is what we call
Speaker 1: the face, right. He like he's the one who would
Speaker 1: be kind of somewhere between an inside man and a
Speaker 1: con artist. Breslin's scheme, his ruse is successful, and he
Speaker 1: sees fremantle prison. Uh, and it's not looking easy because
Speaker 1: if he if he looks over to the eastern view,
Speaker 1: there's anohing but desert stretching out to the horizon. And
Speaker 1: if he looks to the west, there's water are a
Speaker 1: lot of sharks. And then he noticed that there might
Speaker 1: be an advantage in this inhospitable terrain because the security
Speaker 1: at the at the prison wasn't super tight. They weren't
Speaker 1: super on the ball because frankly, their thought was probably
Speaker 1: something like where these guys gonna run, you know, death
Speaker 1: by dehydration, death by shark. The prison might be the
Speaker 1: safest place, but death by whale becose guys suckers swallow
Speaker 1: hole could be like a Pinocchio type situation. Whales are big, right,
Speaker 1: there's that if they could make it past the sharks. Right,
Speaker 1: So this guy does this thing where he's like James Collins,
Speaker 1: American millionaire, I'm interested in making some investments. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for investment opportunities. I would love to visit your prison.
Speaker 1: And then his stick here is that he is James
Speaker 1: Collins is trying to save a couple of bucks by
Speaker 1: hiring out cheap prison labor, by renting the prisoners to
Speaker 1: do work for him. Yeah, and he even managed to
Speaker 1: get a note to the Fenians uh that the rescue
Speaker 1: was happening, everything was going as planned, and to just
Speaker 1: post up and hold tight and that help was on
Speaker 1: the way. And so yeah, you're right. Then he established
Speaker 1: this kind of relationship with the prison brass under the
Speaker 1: false pretenses of hiring prison laborers to do some cheap
Speaker 1: work for him. And whatever his investments and his interest,
Speaker 1: I like it. Yeah, make him Southern. Yeah, let's do
Speaker 1: that him and abroad. It's definitely stunning, no question about it.
Speaker 1: But part of that message also was, Hey, we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that you're not locked up or we
Speaker 1: can't get to you when the rescue does, you know,
Speaker 1: pop off, So be on your best behavior, don't get
Speaker 1: into trouble, and try not to get thrown into solitary
Speaker 1: because if you're there, we can't help you. We got
Speaker 1: one shot, guys, we got one shot. Everybody beyond your
Speaker 1: pieas and cues. This is like that poem just before Christmas,
Speaker 1: be as good as you can be, because it's also
Speaker 1: like that poem by Eminem Lose Yourself. Yes, very much
Speaker 1: like the from the Great American poem in Him. They
Speaker 1: have to do this for a while because the Catalpa
Speaker 1: takes nine months to make it out to Bunbury. This
Speaker 1: Captain George Anthony, he's not having a great time on
Speaker 1: the trip. There's bad weather, the navigation equipment is all
Speaker 1: kinds of food bar. They stopping the as Wars to restock,
Speaker 1: and then boom, six of the crew members ghost. They
Speaker 1: totally desert and so he's stuck at the as Wars
Speaker 1: until he can find replacements for the crew. And then
Speaker 1: he also has to you know, maintain this cover of
Speaker 1: being an actual whaling vessel. The problem is that the
Speaker 1: water he's traversing has been kind of fished out, it's
Speaker 1: been kind of depleted. They're not going to make much
Speaker 1: money back from this trip, and yeah, that's the very
Speaker 1: least of their worries, but they still want that scheme
Speaker 1: that roused to appear solid incredible. Anyway, Breslyn meets up
Speaker 1: with Captain Anthony. They make a plan. They say, Okay,
Speaker 1: these Fenians before James Collins and do like him Southern.
Speaker 1: Before Collins, these Fenians had been doing a bunch of
Speaker 1: different jobs, right, we mentioned quarrying, We also mentioned building roads,
Speaker 1: that kind of hard outdoor labor. But they're not always
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. And so to make this work,
Speaker 1: Breslyn would need all six of the Finians outside of
Speaker 1: the walls of what they did. By the way, call
Speaker 1: this the establishment at the time, and he knew that
Speaker 1: anybody was stuck inside when they shot, their shot would
Speaker 1: be left behind the snow way around it. So another
Speaker 1: plot twist happens because heistro alway about the unforeseen plot twist, right,
Speaker 1: these two Irish guys turn up. They're in Fremantle, and Breslyn,
Speaker 1: being a suspicious sort, says, I think these guys might
Speaker 1: be spies. But then he learns that they had. They
Speaker 1: had come on the scene because someone had written a
Speaker 1: letter to them asking for help, and so they agreed
Speaker 1: that on the day of the escape, these two dudes
Speaker 1: who just showed up, by the way, we're gonna cut
Speaker 1: the telegraph line from Fremantle to Perth. So they would
Speaker 1: they would remove the ability to communicate and request reinforcements.
Speaker 1: Fast forward April eighteen seventy six, Breslyn gets a message
Speaker 1: to the Finians. He says, look, we got money, we
Speaker 1: got firearms, we got clothing. You guys make a run
Speaker 1: for the Catalpa, the ship tomorrow morning. Let no man's
Speaker 1: heart fail him. It's really good at these lines. Dude
Speaker 1: come tearing up a little bit, like these guys have.
Speaker 1: I would listen to him. Order a sandwich a million
Speaker 1: per because you know they're gonna say and super awesome, thick,
Speaker 1: sexy Irish accents, no question. Oh you're feeling it with us,
Speaker 1: aren't you, Max, I think we're all. I have a
Speaker 1: bit of a crush on people with Irish accents, just
Speaker 1: putting that out there, and it's a it's a lovely,
Speaker 1: lovely accent, much preferred to those guttural scots. Just kidding
Speaker 1: you to your guttural scots. But it's a very similar
Speaker 1: set up, but arranged right from what O'Reilly experienced when
Speaker 1: he escaped. But Anthony had ordered the ship that they
Speaker 1: had retained to wait uh several miles out at sea,
Speaker 1: beyond Australian borders, outside of Australian waters um and that
Speaker 1: he would get a rowboat to wait twenty miles up
Speaker 1: the coast from the prison. Breslyn was then meant to
Speaker 1: deliver the Finnians to that location where they would get
Speaker 1: onto the robot and be rowed back to the ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Monday morning day arrives sixteen. Those two new guys in
Speaker 1: the crew. Uh, they did successfully severed the telegraph wire.
Speaker 1: Breslet does get horses, wagons and guns to the rendezvous point.
Speaker 1: He waits or to a rendezvous point that's nearer to
Speaker 1: the prison, and he's just hoping against hope that these
Speaker 1: guys make it out. So let's meet our escaping inmates.
Speaker 1: Thomas Derog is out digging potatoes. Nobody's watching them. Where
Speaker 1: is it gonna go? Thomas Hassett and Robert Cranston managed
Speaker 1: to talk their way out of the walls. Get some
Speaker 1: such guy named Martin Hogan is painting a house for
Speaker 1: the superintendent. These two other guys, James Wilson and Michael Harrington.
Speaker 1: And that's the James Wilson you remember from earlier. This
Speaker 1: voice from the tum guy. They said, look, we're supposed
Speaker 1: to do a job at the Warden's house. So all
Speaker 1: these guys are outside. This is so weird. This is
Speaker 1: um kind of petty, but this is an important part
Speaker 1: of the film we're building because Noel Breslan sees these
Speaker 1: six dudes heading towards them. And there's an interesting historical note,
Speaker 1: it could have been seven. It was a guy named
Speaker 1: James Jeffrey Roche was supposed to be going with them,
Speaker 1: but he had been cut out of the deal right
Speaker 1: for some treacherous deeds where he basically tried to dime
Speaker 1: out his cohorts in exchange for a lighter sentence. So
Speaker 1: he was a cooperator as well, but for the British
Speaker 1: and this was definitely unknown now, so he was ejected
Speaker 1: from the plan. Again't surprise they didn't take more heavy
Speaker 1: handed measures with a guy like that. Yeah, yeah, And okay,
Speaker 1: So they're on the lamb, they're escaping, done and they've
Speaker 1: been gone less for less than an hour when some
Speaker 1: of the guards say, hey, what what happened to the
Speaker 1: Irish guys? But they make it to the shore and
Speaker 1: when they get to the shore, Anthony, Captain Anthony's crew
Speaker 1: is waiting with the boat. But the Katalpa again, like
Speaker 1: you said, is way out at sea. We're talking hours
Speaker 1: of rowing just to reach the actual ship. So they
Speaker 1: get about half a mile from the shore and then
Speaker 1: Breslan sees police mounted police arriving and they've got trackers
Speaker 1: with them. That's right. They weren't expecting to be chased.
Speaker 1: This would be a nice leisurely rowing. I'm sure they
Speaker 1: would have done at a brisk pace. Still, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: being pursued for your life, certainly you're gonna row for
Speaker 1: your life. So adding insults and injury, we now have
Speaker 1: a Coastguard vessel and a steamer that was commanded by
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy. Um, they've all been deployed to catch
Speaker 1: the robots. So it became this like you know, medium
Speaker 1: speed chase on the water. I mean man versus a machine. Right,
Speaker 1: they had a steamer. Those are pretty those are I
Speaker 1: don't know what I mean. I guess it's all about steamships.
Speaker 1: Weren't like super super fast, Um, and asked the robot.
Speaker 1: But they had the they had a head start, I suppose.
Speaker 1: So the men were just rowing for their actual lives
Speaker 1: while being pursued by authorities from the Coast Guard and
Speaker 1: the British who are armed with carbine rifles. So Breslan,
Speaker 1: who we know is excellent at rallying the troops, pulls
Speaker 1: out a copy of a letter that he had just
Speaker 1: mailed to the British Governor of Western Australia. Uh and
Speaker 1: in and in like total Breslan style, We're gonna do
Speaker 1: a little reading here too. This is to certify that
Speaker 1: I have this day released from the clemency of her
Speaker 1: most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, etcetera, etcetera,
Speaker 1: six irishmen condemned to imprisonment for life by the enlightened
Speaker 1: and magnanimous government of Great Britain. Uh in real stargasm here,
Speaker 1: I love it for having been guilty of the atrocious
Speaker 1: and unpardonable crimes known to the unenlightened portion of mankind
Speaker 1: as love of country and hatred of tyranny. People are
Speaker 1: firing at them, by the way, put no question about it.
Speaker 1: Pew pew, like bullets bouncing off the water, like cutting
Speaker 1: you know, little h ripples through the water right around them.
Speaker 1: This is stuff of a cinema. Love of country and
Speaker 1: hatred of tyranny. For this act of Irish assurance, my
Speaker 1: birth and blood being my full and sufficient warrant, allow
Speaker 1: me to add that in taking my leave. Now I've
Speaker 1: only to say a few cells I've emptied. I have
Speaker 1: the honor and pleasure to bid you good day, sir,
Speaker 1: from all future acquaintances. Excuse me, I pray in the
Speaker 1: service of my country. John J. Bresling, I thought he
Speaker 1: was an American millionaire, says somebody psych The Findians love this,
Speaker 1: you know. They're being tossed in the ocean and rowing
Speaker 1: their their keysters off. They let out a cry, rallying cry,
Speaker 1: and they keep going for the Catalpa, And now they're
Speaker 1: getting closer. They can see it in the distance. But
Speaker 1: that steamer, which by the way, is named the Georgett,
Speaker 1: is on their high knees. Since we're a family show
Speaker 1: and the end is rising, they know us. Storms on
Speaker 1: the way, darkness falls, waves are crashing. It's the boat
Speaker 1: is overloaded, by the way. It's a it's a rowboat.
Speaker 1: It's got a lot of people on it, and it
Speaker 1: was getting blown out. To see. Captain Anthony is literally
Speaker 1: standing tall. He's telling everybody, bail, bail all the water
Speaker 1: you can. And he even he privately, we learned later,
Speaker 1: is thinking I don't think we're gonna make it. I
Speaker 1: don't think so. So it does not look good, does
Speaker 1: not look good. And just credit what credit is due.
Speaker 1: Always this account and this kind of sequence of events
Speaker 1: beautifully uh dramatized in that Smithsonian article that we mentioned,
Speaker 1: and we're kind of following their lead on this one,
Speaker 1: but we then have, uh, what what you're talking about?
Speaker 1: The wind kind of rising man, that's uh, that's that's
Speaker 1: some good foreshadowing. Ah, yeah, here's what. Here's what happens.
Speaker 1: So they're rowing through the nights, they don't drown, and
Speaker 1: when morning comes, that steamer is kind of ignoring the
Speaker 1: rowboat and they say, we're going straight for the Catalpa
Speaker 1: because we know where these guys are headed. They're not
Speaker 1: making it. Two freedom in this rowboat. So the captain
Speaker 1: of the steamer, the georgeet and goes to a guy
Speaker 1: named Sam Smith who is running the Catalpa while Anthony
Speaker 1: is doing the rescue mission. And the captain of the
Speaker 1: steamer says, hey, can I come aboard? And the guy
Speaker 1: who's in charge of the Katalpa says not by a
Speaker 1: damn site. And because of this, the steamer is already
Speaker 1: low on fuel and they have to go return to
Speaker 1: shore to re up. And that's what Captain Anthony and
Speaker 1: his finny and pals make a mad dash for the Catalpa,
Speaker 1: and a cutter starts racinging British cutter. They barely get
Speaker 1: to the Catalpa like right before the British, and then
Speaker 1: the whaling ship takes off Captain Anthony's back at the helm,
Speaker 1: he turns it away from Australia and that's when their
Speaker 1: luck ran out. Yeah, yeah, nothing last forever um. They
Speaker 1: had a good run, aided by that magical, seemingly magical wind,
Speaker 1: and the Katalpa, being you know, a sailing ship relying
Speaker 1: on the wind, was no longer able to to move.
Speaker 1: It didn't have anything to fill it sails and push
Speaker 1: it forward. So by morning time, the Georgiette, which was
Speaker 1: that steamer that was loaded down with a cannon by
Speaker 1: the way, pulled up right alongside the Katalpa, and the
Speaker 1: Fenians have truly believed their collective goose was cooked. The
Speaker 1: British began to board and the Fenians uh prepared for
Speaker 1: their what they believed was going to be their last stand.
Speaker 1: And this is where Captain Anthony gets his time to shine.
Speaker 1: This is where he makes his speech and he we
Speaker 1: won't give you the whole thing, but he tells these
Speaker 1: newly rescued Finians, look, the choice is yours. You can
Speaker 1: die here or you can die back in that prison.
Speaker 1: We're out guns, were outmanned, out numbered, out planned, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And the crew, remember they didn't understand the real mission
Speaker 1: when they set off originally, but they are going to
Speaker 1: stand with these Finians. And they're grabbing everything they can
Speaker 1: to fight, and they're grabbing harpoons like they would use
Speaker 1: in their whaling missions. The Georgette fires awarding shot across
Speaker 1: the Katapa's bow and they say he too. And then
Speaker 1: Anthony says what for? And they're like, you have escaped
Speaker 1: prisoners aboard dot ship? Um, this is what for? Like
Speaker 1: I'll give you what for? Or is this what for? Like? Why? Why? Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a y situation, gus um. So he says prisoners.
Speaker 1: What does Anthony say? Anthony says, you were towards to
Speaker 1: this notion that they have escaped prisoners. Uh, you're mistaken.
Speaker 1: You have made a grievous error and judgment. There are
Speaker 1: no prisoners aboard this ship. They are all free men,
Speaker 1: again referring back to that letter, because in their minds
Speaker 1: they were being held unjustly for the you know, egregious
Speaker 1: send quote unquote of love of country, right of resisting
Speaker 1: tyranny from their perspective, So the British say, all right,
Speaker 1: you got fifteen minutes to pump your brakes. We're gonna
Speaker 1: blow up your mast. And the Katapa is also very close,
Speaker 1: you know, now it's been calmed and it it doesn't
Speaker 1: have any wind to propel it. It's very close to
Speaker 1: floating back, drifting back into Australian waters. And so Anthony
Speaker 1: points to the stars and stripes on the ship and
Speaker 1: he says, this ship is sailing under the American flag
Speaker 1: and she is on the high seas. If you fire
Speaker 1: on me, I warn you that you are firing on
Speaker 1: the American flag, which is quick thinking because they're in
Speaker 1: international waters, right, this is a British ship. It would
Speaker 1: be firing on a U. S ship. And he is
Speaker 1: he's saying like the late nineteenth century equivalent of you
Speaker 1: want smoke, Yeah, I mean, it would be an active
Speaker 1: war essentially, or you know, create a serious international incident. Um,
Speaker 1: it would have been a problem. But just as he's
Speaker 1: making this incredible speech and and and pulling this really
Speaker 1: bold power move with the British. The wind comes back
Speaker 1: and the sails are hoisted and they're able to high
Speaker 1: tail it out of there with the Georgette still you know, following,
Speaker 1: but only for about an hour. And they've clearly been
Speaker 1: shaken a little bit by what they were told. The idea,
Speaker 1: this is an American ship and any firing on it
Speaker 1: would be an active aggression against the High States of America.
Speaker 1: So they didn't fire on the American ship because again
Speaker 1: they were in international waters. It was just the two
Speaker 1: sides words against each other, you know. The cap the
Speaker 1: commander of the ship said nope, these are not escaped convicts.
Speaker 1: This is my crew and they are freemen. So it
Speaker 1: was very, very tricky. It became a political situation here,
Speaker 1: and the British commander finally decided, you know what, screw this,
Speaker 1: let's head back. And at this point the Fenians were
Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes, actually free man. Fade out
Speaker 1: on the peaceful seas, uh and yeah, there you go,
Speaker 1: there you go, and then we open like fade in.
Speaker 1: Four months later, the Katalpa makes it to New York,
Speaker 1: thousands of people are waiting to meet these six men.
Speaker 1: Thousands of people are cheering, and there's a Fenian procession
Speaker 1: up Broadway. John Devoy, John Breslin, and George Anthony are
Speaker 1: hailed as straight up heroes. News of this prison break
Speaker 1: spreads across the planet. A lot of people find this
Speaker 1: to be like an heroic move, but not the British. Surprise,
Speaker 1: they say, the US government is associating with terrorists or
Speaker 1: their their specific words, where the U. S Government is
Speaker 1: fermenting terrorists and he said like a fine kim chi, yes,
Speaker 1: and the and the They say additionally, they're like, look
Speaker 1: that Captain Anthony and his crew. They might be laughing
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. Everybody's having a bit of a
Speaker 1: go at. How do I see? But they said this
Speaker 1: is a little nerdy, even though that's a good point.
Speaker 1: They said, they're laughing at our scrupulous obedience to international law.
Speaker 1: That's what's happening here, which is like, yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: hate to say it. Yes, So eventually, you know, they
Speaker 1: changed this story a little bit later and they say,
Speaker 1: actually this is good for us because those guys were
Speaker 1: an expensive nuisance, uh, and the United States can have
Speaker 1: any number of here we go disloyal turbulent plotting conspirators. Again,
Speaker 1: They're like, we don't want you can have them in,
Speaker 1: take them. We gave them to you. That's what happened.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a bad live of insults right there.
Speaker 1: It really is it, really and truly turbulent? Yes, uh
Speaker 1: so what is that? Sorry? Turbulent disloyal plot in conspiracies.
Speaker 1: Oh to all their silly machinations too. I love to
Speaker 1: add that as a kicker, um, but hitherto fourth, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna keep with the silliness. Uh. This group of
Speaker 1: men were referred to as the Fremantle Six, and they
Speaker 1: were definitely still carrying around what would today probably be
Speaker 1: considered PTSD from their time um when they were incarcerated
Speaker 1: in Freemantle Prison, And even though they'd made their getaway,
Speaker 1: they were essentially, according to Devoi in many of his writings,
Speaker 1: broken men. Yeah yeah, I mean they've been through uh
Speaker 1: horrific things, you know. And Devoid had known these guys
Speaker 1: as soldiers, so he wasn't ready for the permanent changes,
Speaker 1: the psychological and physical damage that had been racked upon
Speaker 1: them over a decade's worth of time in the prison. System,
Speaker 1: but he did see more silver lining. The men were
Speaker 1: free and the rescue was a shot in the arm
Speaker 1: for Irish morale across the globe, and it brought this
Speaker 1: new wave in the fight for Irish independence. And ultimately
Speaker 1: you could say that the Fremantle six and the katal
Speaker 1: Per Rescue played a role in the independence of the country.
Speaker 1: Ireland became independent in nineteen twenty two, and Devoy was
Speaker 1: alive long enough to see it. Oh, it makes me happy.
Speaker 1: It's about as happy an ending as you can get
Speaker 1: from a story like this. It's very It really reminds
Speaker 1: me of like, you know, the Shushank redemption, you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of like an Andy Duffrain, kind of putting
Speaker 1: one over on the on the batties that tormented him
Speaker 1: the whole time, and the ending up with the upper hand. Yep, exactly, Mexico.
Speaker 1: That was. That's a great story too, and there's there
Speaker 1: there are more details here. But we thought this was
Speaker 1: such a breathtaking heist, and it's got an international conspiracy,
Speaker 1: it's got geopolitics, it's got some chase scenes. This is great.
Speaker 1: This is a film that Noel Max and I would
Speaker 1: make if it were not already a film, The Katala
Speaker 1: Rescue came out in two thousand seven, So so when
Speaker 1: beat us to the punch just a little bit? Alright,
Speaker 1: who's in it? Man? I've never heard of this film?
Speaker 1: Was it a was it a small picture? Let's see
Speaker 1: it's directed by Lisa Sabini Harney who also wrote it. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't have too much information. I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: check it out and watch it. I think, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the cast and it's not anybody that I recognize.
Speaker 1: It may well have been finance uh in in Ireland.
Speaker 1: A lot of these uh cast members seem to be
Speaker 1: of Irish descent. But do you have the full cast
Speaker 1: of characters along with the narrator? And you know they
Speaker 1: always talk about you know, your heroics will be honored
Speaker 1: in song, and that is absolutely not only in in film,
Speaker 1: but in the song. So let's hear a little bit
Speaker 1: of this. Uh. This Irish folk song of the katal
Speaker 1: put A ship fund command was called the katar Hop
Speaker 1: but they say she came up to Western and Australia
Speaker 1: and took six pole fenions away. All right, Max, you
Speaker 1: said it had some uh had some vibes, right. I
Speaker 1: like its commendation of like you know, traditional Irish Irish music,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of sea shanty in it too,
Speaker 1: which is really cool to me and I STI love
Speaker 1: the cadence of these types of songs that you need
Speaker 1: to see it right on the page. It's like a
Speaker 1: noble whale ship and command called the Catalpa. They say,
Speaker 1: it's like this format for this Irish folk songs. I've
Speaker 1: been watching a lot of the Wire and you get
Speaker 1: a lot of those. The cops are doing their funerals
Speaker 1: in the in the Irish bar where they all hang out.
Speaker 1: But man, what a tale. I can't wait to watch
Speaker 1: the film. I hope it's good. I can't wait either.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's gonna be wonderful. And
Speaker 1: we hope that you enjoyed. Uh this two part episode,
Speaker 1: that's right, our higst Face ended up being a four
Speaker 1: episode thing. Will return to heist again in the future.
Speaker 1: We would like to hear, as we said earlier, some
Speaker 1: of your favorite heist stories. We would like to know
Speaker 1: also for Australians in the in the crowd ridiculous historians
Speaker 1: living in Australia. Uh, do people talk about the Catalpa escape?
Speaker 1: Often is it something that everyone is aware of. You know,
Speaker 1: as we said, we haven't been to Australia yet. We
Speaker 1: very much would like to go in the future. Would
Speaker 1: be cool to go do some live shows there or
Speaker 1: just the visit. Let us know what you think. And
Speaker 1: while you're thinking about that, let's give some well deserved
Speaker 1: thank yous, Oh my gosh, thank you super producer Max Williams,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed our theme researcher Extraordinariy Gabe and
Speaker 1: Lucier because it rhymes with extraordinary. Jonathan Strickland, the one
Speaker 1: and only quister. We missed you, Bud. We'll we'll have
Speaker 1: you on the show as soon as we can. We
Speaker 1: can get in his schedule. He is a very busy guy,
Speaker 1: you know, all the acts of supervility, right, Just eat
Speaker 1: up the calendar. Christopher Hastiota is here in spirit eaves
Speaker 1: Jeff Code out in the world on adventures you bam.
Speaker 1: This voyage has been an honor to to to to
Speaker 1: to to take with you, my friend. Oh likewise, back
Speaker 1: at yougal, We'll see you next time, folks. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.