that further punishment would be unfair. Moondyne Joe was given a ticket of leave in May 1871. The Fenians From 1865 to 1867, British authorities rounded up supporters of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, an Irish independence movement, and transported sixty-two of them to Western Australia. In 1869, John Boyle O'Reilly escaped on the American whaling ship Gazelle and settled in Boston. Later that year, pardons were issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians, after which only eight militant Fenians remained in Western Australia's penal system. The Fenians in America bought the whaling ship Catalpa, which on 29 April 1875 sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts on a secret rescue mission. Coordinating with local Fenian agents, the escape was arranged for 17 April 1876, when most of the Convict Establishment garrison would be watching the Royal Perth Yacht Club regatta. Catalpa dropped anchor in international waters off Rockingham and dispatched a whaleboat to the shore. At 8.30 am, six Fenians who were working in work parties outside the prison walls absconded, and were met by carriages that raced south to where the boat was waiting. The whaleboat managed to rendezvous with Catalpa the following day, which then headed out to sea. They were chased by the steamship SS Georgette, which had been commandeered by the colonial governor. Though Georgette caught up with the whaler on 19 April, Catalpa master claimed they were in international waters, and that an attack on Catalpa would be considered an act of war against the United States. Not wanting to cause a diplomatic incident, Georgette allowed Catalpa to flee. Brenden Abbott Brenden Abbott, "the Postcard Bandit", escaped from Fremantle Prison in 1989. He had been sentenced to twelve years in prison for "Australia's first 'drop in'-style bank robbery" at the Belmont branch of the Commonwealth Bank. While working in the prison's tailor shop, he was able to stitch together overalls resembling those worn by the guards. Abbott and two accomplices took the opportunity to escape, wearing the overalls, when left unsupervised in the workshop. They cut through a bar and got onto the roof. One accomplice fell and broke his leg, but Abbott and the other managed to jump over to the wall, and thus escape. Abbott avoided capture until 1995, committing various robberies as he moved across Australia. He also escaped from a Queensland prison after two years and returned to Western Australia, allegedly