James Martin Born 1760

Hello, I'm James Martin, in 1785 when I was 25, I was tried at the Old Bailey and sent on a prison hulk for stealing 11 screw bolts. Two years later In 1787, they called me a good tradesman, so they put me on a ship called the 'Charlotte'. To go to an unknown 'Great south land' to help set up a colony. I was happy to go, because I was sick of living in a VERY cramped hulk. But I will really miss my family very much. 

The journey was very long, and when we arrived 9 months later, I met a man called William Bryant, who had broken the law and was sent near me where I was labouring with the other Convicts. He had a great plan to escape. A lot of people tried to escape, but failed, so it was very risky! We wanted to escape cause we were scared of being starved to death. Bryant had been hiding tools for our escape, like a compass, a map, bedding, sails, guns , fishing net and food. 

On the night of March 28th 1791, 11 of us stole the Governors boat, which was 10m long and 1.5m wide, and we rowed out of Sydney heads and away from the colony. We ran into a lot of storms, during one bad storm, we dropped our Anchor to wait it out. In the middle of the night, the anchor cable SNAPPED! We were scared that the boat would brake into pieces and we would all die. But luckily, the ocean calmed down, and the boat didn't get damaged, but we did lose an oar. 

A few times we met the Natives, some were nice and took our gifts, but most wanted to kill us, so we had to quickly leave. Once a great number of Natives tried to attack us, but we just fired our gun into the air, and they ran away. We reached West Timor on the 5th of June 1791, at the end of a 69 day, 5000km voyage. WE ALL SURVIVED!

The Route From Sydney To Timor