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The Blackheath Connection - An Australian writer erupts

A WRITER based in Armidale, Australia, Dan Byrnes, has broken with
literary convention in Australia by placing his review of the history of
the transportation of English convicts on the Internet - in entirety as
a "website book".

The book is huge. After 22 years of research and writing, 400,000 words,
available at: http://whatson.northnet.net.au/users/blackheath/

The bulk of the password-protected work is surrounded for Net-reader
convenience by "taster" files which slow-release information on some of
the more controversial aspects the website-book raises.

Among the controversies are treatments of: the legend of Bligh and the
Bounty (overblown); who financed the American War of Independence (a
topic very few want to talk about); what happened to debts owed by
American colonials to British merchants before 1775? (a low return).
Slavery (which London-based merchants were involved?)

Were the Thames River prison hulks run as a "sadistic concentration
camp"? (That answer is up to you.)

"What set me off on researching this book was partly the habit of
Australian writers and historians  over generations now - to complain
about the injustice of convict ships landing convicts at Sydney or
Hobart - "the poor convict underdog" - and never asking: who owned those
ships? Who was behind it all? Why bother with distant Australia?", Mr.
Byrnes said.

"Early on, global business of various sorts including whaling was
involved with this shipping, but what sort of business, exactly? Just
who was involved? Why did they bother?"

"These business questions become simple to answer - if you know the
Pacific maritime history - which Australians don�t, since we have never
asked these broad questions," he said.

Mr. Byrnes says that pursuing such basic questions led him to Blackheath
in London in 1989. Why Blackheath? Because the involvement of shipowners
there became a significant focus of maritime interest in opening the
Pacific to British shipping - which has never been recognised in
Australian/Pacific history-writing. (Research continued.)

"It has also not been fully recognised by historians working in London,
at Greenwich and Blackheath, that merchants resident in those
London-suburban areas had a role in �opening the Pacific�," Mr. Byrnes
said.

Byrnes� website book, "The Blackheath Connection", traces the history of
the transportation of convicts from Britain from 1717 to 1810, a
timeframe which embraces the American Revolution and the "founding" of a
British convict colony at Sydney in 1788.

" �The Blackheath Connection� touches on historical developments in
London, Jamaica, Virginia, Maryland, Sydney (Australia), Tahiti, New
Zealand, Canton (China) and British possessions in India, in ways which
will surprise many", Mr. Byrnes said.

He added, "I may have a piece de resistance of a kind. It�s a very ropy
business which other researchers might wish to take up. In which case I
wish them well. To shift of load of convicts to Australia, a shipowner
or his captain needed a contract. In 22 years, I have been unable to
find evidence of any contract ever taken by any shipowner or ship�s
captain to ship Irish convicts to Australia."

"After 22 years� research, it is very difficult to say what I think
about this situation. I remain somewhat suspicious, to say the least."

(It may be of interest that Dan Byrnes says that of his Irish ancestors,
none were convicts. He does have a convict ancestor arising from
Sheffield, England. Being a thieving cutler, later made good, Alfred
Ernest Windle (1803-1876) died at Coogee, Sydney, with many
descendants.)

For further information: Email Dan Byrnes at: whatson@northnet.com.au