The Brig Frederick
The brig Frederick was built by convicts at Macquarie Harbour, on the west coast of Tasmania in 1833. The Frederick was made on the stocks and while most of convicts were sent away, a gang of convicts were left to finish off painting, caulking the hull with oakum made from frayed rope mixed with leaves or grass. This oakum mixture was pushed into the seams of the timbers to stop leaks and to waterproof the brig Frederick. Thick pitch or tar was laid over the oakum to seal the timbers further. The berths and galleys were constructed by the carpenters. A spare set of sails was also made for bad weather use. The Frederick also carried two boats on board - a longboat that weighed seven tons and a whaleboat.
The convicts plotted to take over the Frederick as she was being sailed out of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour - Hell's Gates. Hell's Gates was a notorious bar that was one of the most dangerous entrances you could find. They managed to take over the brig and left the overseers and prison guards behind at Macquarie Harbour and sailed off into the ocean. The wind started to get stronger and they had to tack past Port Davey where a government post was at. On the second day at sea, on the sixteenth of January, they were three hundred miles from Macquarie Harbour and had been making ten to twelve knots in a heavy sea under reefed topgallant sails. The Frederick sailed past the south coast of Tasmania. On the 21st January, 1834, the Snares Islands were just to the north.
The Frederick sailed east for nine days at about seven to eleven knots. She had only a couple of sails up and they had been reefed. They were sailing about 150 miles per day. The Frederick sailed past New Zealand and was hit by many squalls and storms that caused many problems. Eventually after 6000 miles sailing through gales and rough swells, after forty three days at sea, on the 25th February they sighted land - the coast of Chile. The Frederick was sinking so they rehearsed their stories for the authorities when they landed, and jumped into the ship's longboat and abandoned the Frederick. They finally landed on the coast of Chile near Chiloe.
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