.jpg)
TheBadger escape occurred in July 1833 when twelveconvicts in the Britishpenal colony ofVan Diemen's Land (modern-dayTasmania) used the governmentschoonerBadger to escape toMacau, China. Most of the convicts involved were experienced seafarers who had been appointed to man the vessel soon after theirtransportation. For this, the colonial press accused the government of extreme negligence, and also called for the removal of lieutenant-governorGeorge Arthur. InThe History of Tasmania (1852),John West wrote that, of all the escapes from Van Diemen's Land, "never was the government more culpable, or the prisoners less so, than in the instance of theBadger".[1]
TheBadger escape plot likely originated with convict George Darby, a formerRoyal Navy lieutenant who served at theBattle of Navarino underLord Cochrane.[1] In 1830, he was convicted of stealing from theYork House Hotel inBath and sentenced totransportation for life to Van Diemen's Land. While in confinement atPlymouth, he met master mariner William Philp, due to be transported for life for blowing up a sloop with gunpowder inPenzance harbour. The pair, believing they were to be sent on the same ship, laid a plot to seize it, but were found out. Philp subsequently ended up on theArgyle while Darby was transported on theWilliam Glen Anderson. The surgeon superintendent of Darby's ship received a warning that he was a "dangerous man" who would, "in all probability, be the means of inducing a mutiny ... unless vigilantly watched".[2] Indeed, Darby plotted a mutiny during the voyage with the intention of running for the American coast, where he claimed he had considerable treasure.[1] Another convict on board, the notoriousIkey Solomon, thwarted Darby's plot by alerting the surgeon superintendent, who, upon arrival inHobart in November 1831, told lieutenant-governorGeorge Arthur.[1] In consequence, Arthur warned Darby that he would "suffer all the law could inflict" if he tried to escape.[1]
Meanwhile, several convicts on theArgyle had been found guilty of attempting to murder its commander, Captain Stavers, in order to "piratically take away the ship". Although the ship's surgeon superintendent testified that Philp seemed to be in on the conspiracy, he did not receive punishment.[3]
Despite Darby's mutinous conduct, as well as repeated warnings about his character, he was appointed as signal man atMount Nelson, and subsequently made an assistant to the water bailiff, which allowed him to select the crews for various government vessels. Such a position also afforded him an opportunity of knowing the respective qualifications of Hobart's crewmen, a significant minority of whom were convicts.[1][2] By July 1833, one of the government's schooners, the 25-tonneBadger, had been manned entirely with convicts, including Philp. A "fast sailer"[1] and "well fitted out for a long voyage",[4] theBadger was used to ship provisions from Hobart to military outposts and penal stations aroundVan Diemen's Land, notablyPort Arthur.[5] In early July 1833, she was freighted with provisions, muskets, ammunition and nautical instruments, and set sail forEast Bay Neck military station.[4] Darby signaled that the schooner had arrived, but she never put in. Days later, Darby, theBadger and her crew were reported missing.[1] All twelve convicts on board were "used to the seafaring life" with the exception of John Roberts, a clergyman who had recently been transported to the colony.[5]
When word leaked that the missingBadger had been left solely in charge of convicts, there were immediate calls in the press for the removal of lieutenant-governor Arthur,[6][2] and that he be "surcharged to the amount of the value of theBadger, and for the stores she had on board".[2]
The authorities supposed that theBadger had set out for New Zealand, by then notorious for its population of runaway convicts.[5][7] A number of ships were dispatched to theTasman Sea to hunt down either theBadger or theFrederick—another Vandemonian ship stolen by convict pirates—or what theColonial Times called "needles in a stack of hay".[8] Their searches proved fruitless.[9] WhileThe Austral-Asiatic Review declared that the "miserable men ... will assuredly all perish" at sea,[10]The Independent surmised that, owing to their characters and nautical experience, they would make for South America.[11]
TheBadger escape, like the futileBlack Line, remained a point of reference for critics of lieutenant-governor Arthur. In a sarcastic response to a speech in which he said he had introduced "a more efficient Prison Discipline" in Van Diemen's Land, one journalist cited the circumstances of theBadger as "indisputable proof" of his claim.[12] Critics also reported "without astonishment" that one of the vessels sent in pursuit of theBadger, the cutterCharlotte, had a crew mostly comprising convicts.[8][13]
The fate of theBadger remained a mystery in Australia until Captain Rees, of the merchant vesselLord Amherst, reported in August 1834 that the convicts had been found alive inMacau, China. When Rees was there, he met a party of self-described "shipwrecked seaman" who had initially reachedManila before being brought up to Macau by a Spanish vessel. Later on, the commander of the convict transportArgyle, Captain Stavers, arrived at Macau on his ship theMermaid. He recognised Philp "as a runaway convict from Van Diemen’s Land, having brought him out from England"; at least two others "were also identified by other persons as being runaways from the same place".[14] An investigation confirmed that the "seamen" matched descriptions of the twelve absconders in a copy ofThe Sydney Herald found at Macau, and the vessel which had wrecked at Manila "[corresponded] in every respect with that of theBadger".[14] Nonetheless, the Portuguese authorities refused to interfere, saying there was "not sufficient proof", and the men having been well-behaved in Macau, they could not imprison them.[14]
Rees reported that four of the men subsequently escaped to America aboard a vessel, while Philp and the other seven "remained unmolested" at Macau. Before leaving forSydney, Rees offered Philp a passage there, but he politely refused, saying "he did not wish to go so far southward".[14]