The Ones That Got Away

A few of the prisoners escaped. That made for some good stories.

"Only one man succeeded in escaping from the Tilbury transports, at least only one is so recorded. Stewart Carmichael of Bonnyhaugh had been captured in September 1745, while on his way to join the Prince. He was brought to the Thames and transferred to the Pamela. The prisoners aboard this ship were fed with the offal of diseased cattle and hogs supplied by speculators in Gravesend, and while most prisoners ate what they could of this Carmichael had the wit to see a further use for it. He saved the pigs' bladders until he had four that could be inflated. One night he forced open a port, slipped over the side into the river, and, with the bladders beneath his arms, paddled his way to the Kent shore. He remained hidden in London until the Act of Indemnity.

[As an aside, recall that the first footballs -- really rugby balls -- were made by sewing leather casings around pigs' bladders; hence the otherwise difficult to explain shape of the modern football. Remember Mr. Carmichael's story the next time you watch a football game!]

"The escape of Donald MacLaren was sudden, dramatic and successful. He was a drover from Balquhidder who had gone with other MacLarens to fight with the Appin Stewarts, holding a captain's commission under Ardshiel. For three months after Culloden he skulked with others of his name on the Braes of Leny, the wild and beautiful pass below Ben Ledi, until they were discovered by a party of soliders on a rebel-hunt. Captain Donald fought with his broadsword, shouting 'Creag an Tuire!' as the MacLarens had cried when the Appin Regiment charged against Munro's [Regiment], but a musket-ball broke his thigh and he was captured. He was taken to Stirling and then to the Canongate in Edinburgh. In August he was sent southward for trial in Carlisle, strapped to the saddle behind a dragoon. Before the Border was reached, and when the detachment was riding down the vale of Annan, he managed to free himself from the strap, or saw that it had become loose. It was morning, and the mist was thick above and within the green hollow on Erickstane Brae which local people called the Marquis of Annandale's Beef Stand. There MacLaren slipped from the horse and rolled into the hollow. Lieutenant Howison, the officer commanding, cried out 'By God, I arrest you in the King's name!', which would not have stopped Donald MacLaren even had he been able to halt his descent. The dragoons dismounted, and came down into the bowl of mist, yelling and stabbing, but MacLaren buried himself in a bog, and covered his head with sods. He remained there for some days, keeping himself alive by eating the rotting flesh of a dead sheep. He finally made his way home to Balquhidder, where he disguised himself as a woman and lived thus for two years until he felt it safe to be Donald MacLaren the drover again."

--pages 254-55