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DARI NG EXAPE FROM SIGNAL HILL PRISON
.illY. H. F . $hor-tis I
Historiofispher)
One evening ll!l.st
Spring, 'While l ooking over a t i me - honore d c opy of the
St . John's "Patriot" (I think it ve s)
for 1848, I noticed thel"eln a stirring
account of the daring e ec e pe of t.vo young men f rom the old military prison on
Signal Hill. Since then I have done my best t.o get 8B many details as possible
of the incident itself, 9. S \lel1 A.S of .t he cdr-cumet encea connected therewith. I
have sear-ched the archives of the Depar t ment
of Justice, as far as the gentlemanly
officials there 'Would permit me to go --intervle....ed t he o'Ide nt
inhabitants of
HoyLe st.ovn, and done everything alae I could, to hunt up faots and figures to
enable me to veeve t he affair into a stor y for one of our magazines . The nett
result La t hnt I am nov "out" with the frui t
of my gIeamngs,
The occurrence t o whi ch I r efer t ook place in 1848, and as nearly all the
good epople of thn~_ time have lone sinco " gone . hence to be seen no eor-e'", you ,
r eader , con ima gine t he di f f i cul ties I heve
to face i n getting t he date hare
empl oye d _ My account a t t he star t -take e me ba ck 'thr-ee-quar-ter-s of a _century,
when thingll in St . JOhn 'B wer e 1'10 va at.Ly different hom ....bat they are nov , that
if one of the II old-ti mers" wore to l ay his s hroud aside and step up f rern t he
~__~_ gr nv e , he ._w?ul4 hardIy kno'J _\.Ihat par t of too . _world~ _he _ -hnd come to . - _._.
Dut to begin at the beginningt When t he good ship Dritannia-the first of
he r kind- s t eamed from Liv erpool, marc than eeventy year-s ago, hor paddles
driven by 7/.0 hor-se power engines , f U::Jsily cbu r ndng the: "mui!cly ve ter- e of t he
Ker-sey , she 'WIlB a ve sn eL to murveL at.-one of the fo ur l ate st "vonder s of t ho
vor-Ld'", of ,...hi ch t ho other three ver-e he r- sf.s t.er- Cunarr le r-s, Acadia , Col umbia and
CnI edo ndn ,
She ve e t.hc pionoer which shoved the .....ll y acros s t he Atlanti c t o t he
I'Ieet.s of s rtcum Levf.s t.hans t.hnt .....ere to retrev in her ....ake ; and in her-neIf a
et.a I eLf on ve aee I than t ho Mer~ ey had eeo n , with her 207 foot f rom stem to etor n