According to legend, a woman named Charlotte Badger was brought to Australia as a convict in 1806. She later boarded the brig Venus bound from Sydney to Hobart after being sentenced to domestic work in Tasmania.
While on board the Venus, Charlotte entered into a relationship with the ship’s mate. The captain of the ship, Samuel Rodman Chase, was said to have been a cruel man who regularly flogged the women convicts for entertainment.
Charlotte, along with fellow convict Catherine Hagerty, and their lovers, first mate John Lancashire and crewman Benjamin Kelly respectively, freed the prisoners and secured the ships firearms.
They took control of the Venus and sailed for New Zealand. Charlotte stood at the brig’s helm with Catherine by her side, both donned in men’s clothing and commanding their crew of traitorous crewmen and convicts.
They eventually arrived at the Bay of Islands, which lies just north of modern-day Auckland. Some chose to head further inland, others, such as Charlotte, Kelly and Lancashire, settled where they landed on the coast with the local Maori tribe. Catherine soon died of a fever.
It was eight years later that a British ship sailed into the bay and tried to bribe the Maori to give up the convicts, forcing Charlotte to flee.
It is unclear what happened after that, though most stories say Charlotte fled to America and John and Benjamin either escaped further into New Zealand or were captured and sent back to England to be hanged.
Charlotte was originally convicted in 1796 on the charge of breaking and entering. It was later reported she had broken into a house and stolen a handkerchief and some guineas. There is no surviving documentation about what Catherine was convicted of, but she was said to have arrived in Sydney in 1806.
The mutiny was said to have occurred while the ship was stopped in a river where the captain boarded another nearby ship to spend the night partying. When the convicts, and the few crewmen they had enticed, mutinied, they overpowered the remaining crewmen and forced them into the ship’s boat. Charlotte was reported to have personally thrashed the captain as they forced him into the boat. Once the captain and crew were set adrift, they boarded a nearby brig and ransacked it, stealing all its weapons and food.
After landing at the Bay of Islands, the mutineers befriended the Maori tribe living there, scuttled (deliberately sank) the Venus and settled down to begin their new lives. not everyone chose to stay on the coast because it was well known various warships and whalers travelling around the vicinity of New Zealand would sometimes stop and bribe the coastal Maori tribes to hand over any fugitives they may be harbouring. Thus, some thought they might be safer further inland.
Not everyone chose to stay on the coast because it was well known various warships and whalers travelling around the vicinity of New Zealand would sometimes stop and bribe the coastal Maori tribes to hand over any fugitives they may be harbouring. Thus, some thought they might be safer further inland.
There are a number of different versions of this story. In some it is said Captain Chase was forced off his own ship; in others he is
on board the second ship in the river watching the Venus sail away. Many differ in their telling of the fate of the Venus. In some versions, she is scuttled; some have a few of the traitorous crew continuing on the ship committing crimes around New Zealand, such as kidnapping and raping Maori women; in others, the local Maori tribe in the Bay of Island board the ship and attack the mutineers.