Interesting information but not strictly correct
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (381810)
Rockingham, Australia
May 19, 2022 6:43pm CST
As we entered the door of the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia, we saw a notice board which contained a number of dot points about significant events that had all happened in that day – 16th May – but in different years. However, the photo I took of the notice is fuzzy and when I tried to verify the bits I could read, nothing fitted. But of course lots of other interesting data popped up in my research.
Here are two of the items:
• Matthew Flinders was born in Donington, Lincolnshire, England, in 1774. That is all true but he was born on 16th March, not 16th April.
• The first 208 convicts arrived in 1851 under the command of Edmund Henderson, who later returned to England to become head of the London Metropolitan Police from 1869 to 1886.
This doesn’t tally with my research which says the first ship, Scindian, brought convicts to Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 June 1850. The notice board has the date wrong but I guess that’s poetic licence. My research says there were 75 convicts as well as guards, warders and their families. This might have added up to 208 all told.
What I found funny was that the ship with its human cargo overtook the ship carrying the news that the Scindian was on its way so nothing had been prepared for the arrival of all these extra people. No phones, telegrams or Zoom in those days!! And I’m sure it wasn’t funny for the poor new settlement battling to provide for its own inhabitants, let alone being landed with a heap of newly arrived people
The photo is of one of the exhibits in the museum.
11 people like this
12 responses
@rebelann (117199)
• El Paso, Texas
20 May 22
Boy was I off base with the facts. I always thought it was Queen Elizabeth I who had convicts sent to Australia, where the heck did I get that notion??
Her reign suggests it was probably the Americas where convicts were sent in those days.
Her reign suggests it was probably the Americas where convicts were sent in those days.3 people like this
@JudyEv (381810)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 May 22
@Fleura I think the gaols were overcrowded and they were keeping prisoners on vessels moored in the river so they were looking for somewhere to send the prisoners. Then, when stories came back that the French had landed on Australian shores, the English were scared they'd annex it before them (the British) so they made great haste to get here first and claim it for themselves.
3 people like this

@DaddyEvil (174245)
• United States
20 May 22
Verifying information can often be more fun than the information itself.3 people like this
@JudyEv (381810)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 May 22
@DaddyEvil That's part of it for me but I also like to have things correct. I don't like spouting my mouth off here if the facts aren't right.
1 person likes this

@FourWalls (86575)
• United States
20 May 22
Don’t you hate that? You’d think a museum would have someone to verify the facts. I remember when I went to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame they had a display that said Toni Tennille (an Alabama native) wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Oh, no she didn’t!!!
Nice cannon. That probably kept the prisoners in line. 

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@Morleyhunt (21741)
• Canada
20 May 22
I’ve always found that verifying information can lead you down some entertaining bunny trails.
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@JudyEv (381810)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 May 22
Are there monuments to Matthew Flinders? I guess there would be. He had a black cat called Trim that went on many voyages with him. Trim appears in some of the statues.
Edit: Did I miss something? Is your birthday March 16?
I'm a bit slow sometimes.
I'm a bit slow sometimes.1 person likes this

@snowy22315 (208751)
• United States
20 May 22
I guess you will have to straighten that museum out...

1 person likes this
@JudyEv (381810)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 May 22
I find it really annoying. I guess I should know better than to believe all I read. lol
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
20 May 22
And not only did they have to deal with people they weren't ready for but the people coming were convicts. Certainly they weren't expected to live with the rest of the village/townsfolk.
1 person likes this

@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
22 May 22
@JudyEv I can't even imagine what it must have been like for them back then.
1 person likes this

@Fleura (34926)
• United Kingdom
20 May 22
It's like when you send a postcard and then you get back from holiday before it arrives!
Very annoying when some place like a museum can't get its facts right. You tend to trust those places to be telling the truth, otherwise you can't believe any of it!
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222286)
• United States
20 May 22
Thank you for the information about the convicts. My husband would love to see that cannon. He wants one of his own!
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