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Felon Charlotte Badger and convict Catherine Hagerty were
among other convicts who seized the colonial brig called Venus while it was
docked at Port Dalrymple so that the captain could attend to some business
delivering official dispatches. The pirates headed for New Zealand and the
Bay of Islands. In one story, the islanders hanged them and four others, and
in another account, the two women, Charlotte and Catherine, had been living
onshore, but Catherine Hagerty had become ill and died in April, 1807.
Charlotte and her child remained in the Bay, where it was believed that she
lived with a local maori rangatira for some time. She refused to return to
Port Jackson even though they were offered passage from several ships,
including the Elizabeth, saying she wanted a passage to America. Charlotte
and her daughter were believed to have accepted a passage aboard a ship on
its way to Tonga. |
