| YANKEE GRIT IN THE ANTHONY FAMILY A WHALING CAPTAIN’S DARING RESCUE OF IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS WAS NOT OUT OF CHARACTER GIVEN HIS ROOTS By Philip A. Fennell & Marie King |
In 1876, a New Bedford whaler sailed to Western Australia. Six Irish convicts from Fremantle Prison escaped, and boarded the bark Catalpa in a well planned and executed operation. The rescue was carried out under the direction of John Devoy of New York and the Clan-na-Gael. It has always been held up as one of the great 19th century Irish success stories against British rule. The rescued convicts were serving life terms for their part in the Fenian movement of the 1860s. All had been in the British Army at the time of their subversive activities, and the military establishment saw to it that pardons were not in the offing. (By the time of the Catalpa rescue, virtually all incarcerated civilian Fenians of that period had been pardoned.) The rescue comprised two parts. Several Clan representatives went to Australia to organize the escape from the prison. From the sea, the Catalpa was to rendezvous and take the escapees aboard and sail to America. The plan succeeded and while tensions and suspense ran high, there was no bloodshed. The ship was threatened by a British vessel demanding the prisoners. The Catalpa’s captain stood on the deck and, according to the log, pointed to the American flag and daringly declared, “I am on the high seas. The American flag, my flag, protects me. If you fire on this ship, you fire on the American flag.” The Catalpa was allowed to pass without further menace. This captain was George Smith Anthony of New Bedford, Massachusetts. A thirty-two year old seasoned whaler, Anthony had three years previously given up the sea and taken a mechanics job at a local factory. He married and his first child was born in January, 1875. But his father-in-law introduced him to John Devoy and Anthony quickly agreed to join this exceptional venture. This was not only about the draw of the sea, of course. Whaling had its own noble calling, grandly described by Herman Melville in Moby Dick: “…I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling.” Economically, the captain of a whaler could do quite well with his lay, his share of the compensation the officers and crew received at the end of a voyage. It had been agreed by all parties that the Catalpa would whale to and from Australia thereby making it a self-sufficient operation. (Regrettably, this did not happen.) But who was this New England Yankee, and why would he jeopardize his career for a cause and a people with whom he had nothing in common? After all, once the mission was completed, his name was well known to the authorities, and he could not safely enter a British port. Anthony himself insured this when, despite Devoy’s admonitions, he himself took the rescue boat to shore, becoming, in the eyes of the authorities, a clear accessory to the crime. Devoy had instructed Anthony to stay on board during the rescue so he could profess ignorance of the events. Now he could never whale again. In 1897, Anthony published a fine account entitled The Catalpa Expedition, written by a journalist friend, Z.W. Pease. In it, his wife, child and mother are mentioned briefly. Otherwise there are no references to family. Subsequent books on the subject make little or no reference to the family. Apparently unknown to most Catalpa researchers and even Anthony’s descendants, a history of the family was published in 1904. Genealogy of the Anthony Family - From 1495 to 1904 was compiled by a cousin of George, Charles L. Anthony. It documents that the Anthonys of America, George’s people, were participants – not spectators – in the development of this country, and George’s relatives, close or distant, stand out for their contributions. They spread throughout this emerging nation, to the Midwest, the South and the West. They were farmers, doctors, lawyers, businessman, teachers, public officials and mariners. They were involved in transportation, politics, manufacturing, the military and the sciences. As each generation spread geographically, they may have been unaware of their connections, and each other’s achievements, though the research of cousin Charles suggests that some contact among relations must have occurred. Genealogists may be disappointed with the absence of sources for some of the information in Charles Anthony’s work, but all the material presented here has been corroborated by third party sources with no discrepancies encountered. © copyright 2004,2005 Philip Fennell & Marie King |
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| The two images on this page are from The Catalpa Expedition by Z. W. Pease (New Bedford G.S. Anthony, 1897) If copying, kindly credit original source. |
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