WE HAD AN INTERESTING EXPERIENCE UPON LEAVING Sydney for Tasmania. The Captain of Majestic Princess had agreed to participate in an anti-pirate exercise with the Australian Navy. Since we had faced a possible pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden a couple of years ago, we were on deck when four heavily-armed RHIBs approached from the stern and took turns simulating boarding the Princess. After watching the boats toss and turn in the swells, Connie and I both agreed this was another reason not to join the Navy!
Here comes the Navy!
Well trained and Armed to the Teeth
On our campervan tour of Tassie in 2012 we wrote this about Port Arthur Convict Site: It must have been a terrible ordeal for the prisoners at Port Arthur. Around 1830, England was rounding up criminals and other unsavory folks and shipping them off to Australia. Perhaps 70,000 people were sentenced to "transport" for deeds as dastardly as nicking a loaf of bread. Most were put to work on government projects or as cheap labor on private estates.
Port Arthur from the Majestic Princess
Model of Port Arthur Prison
Being sentenced to Tasmania was among the worst punishments and the penal colony at Port Arthur was a special hell. The weather was (and still is) terrible and escape nearly impossible. Stormy seas and seaside cliffs deterred swimmers and the peninsula narrows to only a few hundred feet at Eaglehawk Neck and the "dog line" which was patrolled by vicious dogs. Probably the worst sentence was to the coal mines, hard work at the best of times, and where the recalcitrant would be kept underground in solitary confinement cells.
Majestic Princess and Penitentiary Block
Typical 5X10 foot Cell
Prison Commandant's House
The only changes today were that we arrived by sea and the entry fee was covered in our fare. I still didn’t notice a sense of remorse by the government for the harsh sentences and deplorable conditions of the prisoners.
