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Published: March 18th 2010
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Sea days are wonderful. This one was a busy. The Cruise Critic get together was a great success. About 50 guests showed up as well as Captain Visser, the Cruise Director, Hotel Manager and Beverage Manager. We socialized and had a good exchange of ideas about the up coming ports. The Beverage manager offered a private Happy Hour for our group and we will certainly take advantage of his offer.
The seas were calm and the skies clear so my next stop was the pool for a dip and some reading. After lunch on deck I changed and went to Team Trivia. We have a fun team but really did not do well at all. We’re just lulling the competition into a false sense of security. How many time zones are there in China? Stay tuned.
It was them time for a Texas Hold ‘em tournament. I was the first eliminated. I promise to do better next time Joe. More time to read and nap, then I changed, had a waltz with Mr. Ed and went into dinner. The ship was decorated in green balloons and streamers. They even had Guiness on board. It was our first formal night and everyone
looked grand in the tuxes and gowns, suits and cocktail dresses. Corned beef and cabbage was on the menu. An Irish sing-a-long in the piano ended a great sea day.
Port Arthur was a whole different experience. It was one of the most brutal penal colonies in the system, home to over 12,000 convicts while it operated some as young as nine.
The day was severe clear and the seas calm. The ruins of the colony, now a National Park and a World Heritage Site, hug the shore of a beautiful peninsula. The park is quiet, people respect the history, and while walking around you can hear the birds singing. It is easy to imagine that you can hear the clang of leg irons.
The visitor’s center has a wonderful exhibit. You get a prisoner card and discover who you are, what your crime is and how your life at the colony unfolds. I was a twenty-two year old felon, convicted of burglary and sentenced to transportation of 7 years labor. I began my sentence on boat detail, a rather cushy job, but due to an infraction of the rules was sent to the chain gang after fifty lashes
of the cat. Given my temperament things went from bad to worse and I spent my final days in the Asylum, mad as a hatter. On the way through the exhibit, I had the chance to try on leg irons. They are really, really heavy. I can’t imagine walking, let alone working in them.
If anyone is interested in learning about Port Arthur I can recommend a wonderful book called “For the Rest of his Natural Life”. It was published in the late 1800’s and is a fictionalized account of penal life. It was instrumental in bringing the horror to the attention of the citizens.
One side bar; before England began transportation to Australia, it sent it’s incorrigibles to the American colonies. For 20 pounds, a free colonist could send for a felon and would have free labor for the term of his or her sentence. The war of independence put an end to that practice. It’s possible that members of the DAR had ancestors who were convicts.
China has one time zone.
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