Captain's Descendants Share 150-Year-Old Prison Rescue Logs

Jim Ryan was just six years old when he discovered his family's extraordinary secret in a rainy-day attic adventure. Among old parasols and dusty chests, he found beautiful drawings of a boat and documents that would connect him to one of history's most daring prison escapes.

His great-grandfather, Captain George Anthony, led a covert mission in 1876 to rescue six Irish revolutionaries from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. The principled Quaker from Massachusetts risked everything for strangers on the other side of the world, sailing the whaling ship Catalpa into history.

Now, 150 years later, Ryan has donated his family's collection of historic documents to Fremantle Prison. The archive includes the Catalpa's bills of sale, Anthony's personal manuscript, the ship's logbook, and even a 200-year-old mathematical workbook belonging to the captain's father.

The documents reveal a man described in every obituary as "kind, soft-spoken, diligent, caring with people, friendly." Anthony's calm demeanor and pacifist beliefs proved crucial during the escape, particularly when he stopped an operative from shooting a witness who spotted the fleeing convicts.

"That was his Quaker background, I think, as well as being smart, saying if we get caught we're going to get hanged," Ryan said. The mission succeeded without violence, though Anthony paid a heavy price for his principles.

British authorities branded him a pirate upon his return. He could never go to sea again, despite having saltwater in his blood since age 15.

The collection also includes a family scrapbook compiled by Anthony's daughter Ethel, who spent decades collecting newspaper clippings about her father's legacy. These rare documents fill a crucial gap for the prison's archives, which previously had little information about what happened after the Fenians left their cells.

The Ripple Effect

Conservator Lily Bennion calls the donation "completely unique" for the prison, which became an educational tourism site after closing in 1991. The prison has seen a huge increase in visitors wanting to learn about the Catalpa rescue, and these documents will help tell the complete story for the first time.

Ryan has visited Western Australia several times over 20 years for anniversary events. "I've never met more people informed about my great-grandfather than in Fremantle," he said, noting how the story of compassion and courage resonates across generations and oceans.

Fremantle Prison will share the digitized collection online in May, making Anthony's legacy accessible to anyone inspired by his example. Ryan learned what it means to be a man by reading about his ancestor, and now the world can too.