This morning, I was trying to think of an "L" concept, person, or event that would tie into 19th Century Tasmania. Lady Franklin, otherwise known as she-who-got-me-started-on-this-project. BTW Robert Hughes gives her just one page in The Fatal Shore, a little shocking given her role in Franklin's recall. But, then I thought since I'm working on convict history at Port Arthur this week, perhaps the Luddites.
But only one "L" leaped off the page. L is for L I B R A R Y.
I've already exhausted my local city and local county libraries. Interlibrary loan takes weeks, but brings me books from all over the country and the Library of Congress. I'm grateful for every book I've gained this way. Shelf browsing at used book stores has brought some surprising gems, but oh, is that random. Libraries are changing, but perhaps not fast enough.
My go-to research source is simply the Internet in all its complexity. I've found doctoral theses, genealogy essays, biographies, travel sites, and lovely PDF files. I'm no apologist for Wikipedia; I think Wiki is a great jumping off place for overviews, key names, dates, maps, and photos.
This morning, my online search took me to a wonderful book, An Excursion to Port Arthur, 1842, written by David Burn, no publication date available. Within minutes, I had downloaded the book onto my Kindle (no cost) through the Internet Archive. and an "editable page" through the Open University. Right when I'm struggling to understand the daily life of prisoners at Port Arthur, and, yep, in 1842.
Just this year Amazon opened up access to Kindle books for libraries. We patrons (whether of Amazon or libraries) have had to jump through a few extra hoops, but the sorting, searching, and downloading will continue to improve. And now I'm ready to download and get back to work!
Showing posts with label Port Arthur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Port Arthur. Show all posts
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
K is for Kangaroo . . .
The kangaroos in Tasmania, the Forester or Gray Eastern kangaroo, are smaller than those in mainland Australia. The Forester kangaroo can weigh up to 130 pounds and reach a height of 6 feet. They're capable of traveling about 40 miles an hour in their all-out jumping mode.
If a predator (like a dingo) pursues a kangaroo into the water, the 'roo can use its short arms to hold the dingo under the water until it drowns. Also, male 'roos really do box. They may be fighting over a female 'roo or 'practicing' by boxing with another male. Sometimes they lean back on their tails so they can kick the enemy in the stomach. These strangely graceful, yet comic creatures must have been a shock for newcomers to Tasmania in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
To the half-starved early colonials, convicts, sailors, and the military, I've learned that 'roos still made a tasty meal throughout the 19th Century. For my novel, I imagined that the prisoners in Port Arthur would welcome a story-teller. Here's Jake from Years of Stone, telling how a prisoner named Billy Hunt nearly escaped from Port Arthur:
“Yeah, I got a story. One that will make you laugh.” Jake’s stomach rumbled. “Billy Hunt almost got out of here. Somehow he got a ‘roo skin big enough to cover him and bribed his way out to where he’d hidden it. In the dark, he kind of looked like a giant ‘roo. The damn guards spotted him. They was as hungry as us, and they nearly shot him. They beat him near to death. I hear he went insane over at the Separate Prison. You don’t want to go there.”
If a predator (like a dingo) pursues a kangaroo into the water, the 'roo can use its short arms to hold the dingo under the water until it drowns. Also, male 'roos really do box. They may be fighting over a female 'roo or 'practicing' by boxing with another male. Sometimes they lean back on their tails so they can kick the enemy in the stomach. These strangely graceful, yet comic creatures must have been a shock for newcomers to Tasmania in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
“Yeah, I got a story. One that will make you laugh.” Jake’s stomach rumbled. “Billy Hunt almost got out of here. Somehow he got a ‘roo skin big enough to cover him and bribed his way out to where he’d hidden it. In the dark, he kind of looked like a giant ‘roo. The damn guards spotted him. They was as hungry as us, and they nearly shot him. They beat him near to death. I hear he went insane over at the Separate Prison. You don’t want to go there.”
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I is for Insidious . . .
Insidious. I always thought that insidious meant untrustworthy, like when you might be walking on marshy ground and suddenly step into quicksand. An online dictionary says that insidious comes from the Latin, to ambush, and can mean either "stealthily treacherous or deceitful" or to operate in "a seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect".
How those transported to Van Diemen's Land were treated seems insidious to me. I don't understand how those responsible for laws and who set social convention could have done what they did without feeling some sense of compassion, remorse, and in the same sense that Joseph Conrad meant, horror. I've read that the worst evil occurs when the average person simply accepts something that is evil as a part of everyday reality, banal, even acceptable.
The upper class talked of reform and redemption through work. But as I read about prison conditions, I cannot reconcile the ideal with reality. In the mid 19th Century, the 'worst' offenders, yes, those who committed repeated offenses, sometimes as simple as running away over and over again, were sent to Port Arthur (young boys to Point Puer), or those without hope, to Norfolk Island. Backbreaking work, floggings for the slightest provocation, fetters for the legs and the neck, isolation, condemned to silence, reduced rations, solitary, and, perhaps worst, the hood, a black bag over the head that prevented sight.
No wonder Hughes reports in The Fatal Shore that these men became enraged and insane. This is the environment that my hero, Mac, must survive.
I'm remembering a television show, perhaps it was a British series, where a group of actors were sent out to a Victorian country house to play the parts of master and servant over several months. The actress who assumed the role of the lady of the house was heard off camera berating her "son" because he wanted to play with the servants' children. "You do not associate with them. They are not of our class."
Insidious.
Read other bloggers participating in the A to Z Challenge here.
How those transported to Van Diemen's Land were treated seems insidious to me. I don't understand how those responsible for laws and who set social convention could have done what they did without feeling some sense of compassion, remorse, and in the same sense that Joseph Conrad meant, horror. I've read that the worst evil occurs when the average person simply accepts something that is evil as a part of everyday reality, banal, even acceptable.
The upper class talked of reform and redemption through work. But as I read about prison conditions, I cannot reconcile the ideal with reality. In the mid 19th Century, the 'worst' offenders, yes, those who committed repeated offenses, sometimes as simple as running away over and over again, were sent to Port Arthur (young boys to Point Puer), or those without hope, to Norfolk Island. Backbreaking work, floggings for the slightest provocation, fetters for the legs and the neck, isolation, condemned to silence, reduced rations, solitary, and, perhaps worst, the hood, a black bag over the head that prevented sight.
No wonder Hughes reports in The Fatal Shore that these men became enraged and insane. This is the environment that my hero, Mac, must survive.
I'm remembering a television show, perhaps it was a British series, where a group of actors were sent out to a Victorian country house to play the parts of master and servant over several months. The actress who assumed the role of the lady of the house was heard off camera berating her "son" because he wanted to play with the servants' children. "You do not associate with them. They are not of our class."
Insidious.
Read other bloggers participating in the A to Z Challenge here.
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