Product Description
The Catalpa Rescue is a piece of program music, using folk tunes that tell the story of a fascinating incident in both Australian and US history.
The Catalpa rescue was the escape, on 1719 April 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from the Convict Establishment (now Fremantle Prison), a British penal colony in Western Australia. They were taken on the convict ship Hougoumont to Fremantle, Western Australia, arriving 9 January 1868. In 1869, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. Another round of pardons was issued in 1871, after which only a small group of "military" Fenians remained in Western Australia's penal system.
In 1874, prisoner James Wilson secretly sent a letter to New York City journalist John Devoy, who worked to organize a rescue. Using donations collected by Devoy from Irish-Americans, Fremantle escapee John Boyle O'Reilly, then living in Boston, purchased a merchant ship, Catalpa, and sailed her to international waters off Rockingham, Western Australia. On 17 April 1876 at 8:30 am, Wilson and five other Fenians working outside the prison walls, Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Thomas Hassett, and Robert Cranston, boarded a whaleboat O'Reilly had dispatched, but a local named James Bell saw the men and quickly alerted the authorities.
As they rowed to Catalpa, a fierce squall struck, breaking the whaleboat's mast. The storm lasted till dawn on 18 April and was so intense that they later stated that they didnt expect the small boat to survive. At 7 am, with the storm over, they again made for Catalpa but an hour later spotted the screw steamer Georgette, which had been commandeered by the colonial governor, making for the whaler. The men lay down in the whaleboat and it was not seen by Georgette. Georgette found Catalpa but, in Captain Anthony's absence, the first mate refused to allow the colonial police to board as the ship was outside the colony's three-mile limit. The steamer was forced to return to Fremantle for coal after following the Catalpa for several hours.
As the whaleboat again made for the ship, a police cutter with 30 to 40 armed men was spotted. The two boats raced to reach the Catalpa first, with the whaleboat winning, and the men climbing aboard as the police cutter passed by. The cutter turned, lingered briefly beside Catalpa, and then headed to shore. Early on 19 April the refuelled and now armed Georgette returned and came alongside the whaler, demanding the surrender of the prisoners and attempting to herd the ship back into Australian waters. They fired a warning shot with a 12-pounder (5 kg) cannon that had been installed the night before. Ignoring the demand to surrender, Anthony hoisted and pointed towards the U.S. flag, warning that an attack on Catalpa would be considered an act of war against the U.S., and proceeded westward. After steaming around threateningly for about an hour, Georgette headed back to Fremantle and Catalpa slipped away into the Indian Ocean.
Guitar orchestra: Guitar 1 - Guitar 2 - Guitar 3 - Guitar 4 (low D)
Score and parts
Duration: 5:55
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.