Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
James Porter was transported on the Asia 1, departing 29th Jul 1823 and arriving 19th Jan 1824 with 154 passengers.
Built by A Hall & Co at Aberdeen in 1818. A Brig of 536 tons. (Wikipedia) 1830 - Voyage. Asia from Ireland. Female Convict Ship; Stead; Master, Alexander Nesbit M.D. Surgeon Superintendent. Arrived in Sydney Cove 13 Jan 1830. Mustered - 186. Died on Voyage - 3. Disembarked - 1. Total Embarked - 200
Asia 1 (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/5, Page Number 78. Tasmanian Archives. |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
James (Jimmy) PORTER was convicted at Surrey, England March 1823 for housebreaking. Life Sentence. Gaol report: "bad character. badly behaved". Hulk report: "disorderly". Transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, Australia) per the ship "Asia" arriving Jan 1824. Aged 19yrs; a beer machine maker; single man; blind in left eye; brown hair; brown eyes; 5'2" height. Native place of birth: Bermondsay, London. (ref. Convict records) Colony of VDL: Assigned to work services. Several records of misconduct and punishments. Absconded from Hobart in Aug 1826. 1828: committed for trial for steaing boards. Sentence extended. As above contribution, absconded from Macquarie Harbour, VDL, 1834, with 9 other convicts, to Chile. 1837: Returned, as a convict, from England for piracy. Guilty but not sentenced to death. Spent 2 yrs in gaol in Hobart, then sent to Norfolk Island (off the east coast of New South Wales) 1839. In 1847 he was sent to Newcastle, New South Wales where he again escaped. Whilst on Norfolk Island Jimmy write (under Govt assistance) a memoir of his life. Many other extracts have been written about his exploits.
After many attempts at escaping, was sent to the Sarah Island camp in Macquarie Harbour. In 1834, around the time the Sarah Island settlement was being abandoned, Porter and a group of nine other convicts dramatically seized the ship "Frederick", which they were building at the camp and sailed it to Chile. There, the convicts posed as shipwrecked sailors, before eventually being arrested by the British authorities in 1836. Porter was returned to London for retrial and sentenced to death for piracy, but this sentence was commuted to transportation (again), this time to Norfolk Island, arriving in 1837. After four years of good behaviour he was transferred to the mainland, but in May 1847 he absconded again from Newcastle - and this time was never heard from again. His story is partly covered in the play "The Ship That Never Was". He also wrote an autobiography while on Norfolk Island.