Mary Bryant (2005) s01e02 Episode Script

The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant Part 2 We'll take her in.
You did it! You got us away.
Well done, son.
Well done.
We'll cork her up then she'll be fit to take us through hell and back.
'Hell and back'? Where are we going? Timor.
Just north of here.
Three and a half thousand miles.
And how many miles today, Will? Four, maybe five.
Unless you plan to march across the water, sir we've lost them.
We'll have to find another crossing, sergeant.
Look at you! Running free for the first time in your life! We're not convicts.
We're on our way back to Europe.
So you'd better start reciting who you are.
We could be ship's crew.
You'd give yourself away in a minute.
What were you before you turned thief? I've never been anything else.
I've always fancied a parson's life.
Well, I'm 'Elizabeth Mary Parker'.
One of the Parkers from Bath.
I followed my husband, Mr.
John Parker a well respected merchant seaman.
We planned to seek our fortune in these foreign waters only to have our hopes dashed when our ship went down.
One wash in the sea water and they both turned respectable.
However we were fortunate enough to share a boat with five gentlemen of outstanding courage whose kindness to myself and our children has carried us through the ordeal.
I'm Robert Townsend, from Bristol Trading in exotic plants and spices, birds and animals too.
Sam? - I don't know.
- Joseph Taylor apprentice and companion to Lord Stanley Chadwick the great explorer and botanist.
Sadly lost when the ship went down.
- But I tried to rescue him.
- I saw you, brave lad.
Do one for me, Mary.
Someone small, Henry Small, ship's rat! Still thinking of your Lieutenant? There is and always has been only one man for me.
Sir.
Sir.
See what you can scare up for breakfast.
Don't waste a shot, and don't come back with anything too strange looking.
Go on.
Alright, come on! Get a fire on.
Come on, lift your feet.
They're a breath away from turning on you.
I'll not die chasing after a whore and nor should you, sir.
The Governor's cutter is the only sound reliable boat we have and we have a duty to retrieve it.
We will carry out that duty, sergeant.
They're always saying you do this, you do that Marines! Marines! Come on! Go! Go! Come on! Hurry! Where's Sam? - Where's he? - I don't know! Halt! We shall return to the colony.
We are going back! Come on! Stay down! Come on! Come on! Down! Down! Roar! Come on! Come on! Come on! Load, load! Hurry! They're going! There he is! Can you see Clarke? There's no sign of them.
Why don't you say it? They could still be there, waiting for us.
We can't risk going back to get him.
They can see there was only six of us in the boat! They know we left one behind.
No, no, they'll be all gone by now.
We don't know that.
We don't know where they are, they can see us for sure.
- We can't leave him! - Martin, shot one of them! I can't see Clarke giving up on us.
And I can't see him giving up on you, Mary.
It's a trap! Leave him or we're all dead! You! You! You were not even supposed to be here! We can't leave him! That boy would die for anyone of us! - We're in range.
Will? - What? What? What are you doing? You're steering at the sea! No! Don't leave me! Don't leave me! Don't leave me! Come on, lad! Come on! I couldn't leave that boy behind.
No more than I could sleep with Ralph Clarke.
But we've got this far because you could.
They all know it, but none of them can say it.
We've got this far because you sailed us here.
Wait till you see this.
Look! Look! Don't you see? You've gone native? Coal! Tonnes and tonnes of the stuff.
On the beach around the bay, just waiting to be picked up.
Come on! We need water! A hundred pounds in weight of rice.
And Flour! Salted pork! And Rum! Fishing nets! Tools! Muskets! Shot! Powder! Our one decent boat, and with our only fisherman.
All gone! And you took her in.
Come in.
I can't get a word out of the boy, sir.
Perhaps it is possible they had no plan beyond escape.
Or perhaps find a passing ship that wouldn't bring them straight back here.
But everything else was well planned, sir.
Even so the nearest civilization Timor.
Three, four thousand miles away.
They'd have to negotiate reefs twelve hundred miles of open sea and with the burden of carrying a woman and children.
And even if they survive the sea.
.
they'll never survive each other.
Now there's a roaring a fire for you, Mary.
This is good wind.
We better catch it.
Come on, we need to take our chances when we can.
It's good to be free, isn't it.
No one lording it over us.
Why don't we call this a day of rest? It's gone! A slab of salt pork! Enough feed for all of us! Yes, we're free.
We're not in the colony, but if we steal from each other.
Take care who you're looking at? How do we know it wasn't you? It wasn't me! Whoever it was.
And I don't care who the bastard is.
I'll find him out.
And there'll be one less mouth to feed.
For the love of God, take us in.
We're been out 10 days now.
Not on that shore, she'd break up on the reef.
Perhaps he's not starving like the rest of us.
Have we found our thief? - Will's no thief.
- We're all thieves.
Did someone give this boat? -We have to use our muskets! -No You think you know hunger.
Wait until you can't run.
Can't walk anymore.
Can't even think then we'll use our last shots to get meat.
Savages! - I scared them off! - They might have helped us.
Back, back in the boat! Get back in the boat! Come on! Come on! Give me the powder! Go! Go! One shot, that's all we've got lift! God knows how I'd like use it.
Who are you being loyal to? Mary Bryant? She left you on that beach to die.
Do you think she'd die for you? She'd never even think of it.
- I wouldn't want her to.
- Where are they heading for? Tell me something, anything and I can plead clemency.
The Governor will listen.
No one has the appetite for another senseless killing.
That poor boy.
God, look at him.
We do beseach you blessed Father to raise us from the death and sin.
Into a life of righteousness.
Grant us this thru Jesus Christ, our mediator in thee.
Amen.
By the powers invested in me by His Majesty King George I have sentenced Sam Liley to be hung.
This brings me no satisfaction.
But every thief will face the same end.
No, let them come, let them see.
Proceed.
No, no.
Alright, son.
See! Now why didn't he tell us? They stay in the boat now 'for the safety of the children.
' Soon we'll turn around and find them gone.
No, they can't get the boat in the water without us.
Every time the wind blows hard we have to run for land.
What chance do we have hundreds of miles out to sea? We haven't seen savages for a month or more.
We know all the good spots: Fresh water, fish, fuel.
We can survive.
We don't need him.
Going out there, it's just Bryant's vanity.
Between's we know enough to get the boat up and down the coast for what we need.
I don't know that I can get us across.
Of course you don't.
It's a risk.
You've gone from Cornwall across to Spain the same distance, you said it yourself.
And you'll be the one to get us to Timor.
I didn't exactly do that.
'Sail across to Spain'.
We didn't exactly do that.
I can read a chart better than a book.
I can hug a coastline, feel a boat around rocks.
But I've never taken a boat out of sight of land in my life.
And I don't intend to now.
Listen to it.
It's our last stroke of luck and it's telling us to stay here.
- Then why did you say - Don't you know me by now? The others are also scared, too.
Mary.
They can steal the boat away from us, if they want it.
The fire needs feeding.
If we go against Bryant once it starts there's no telling how it will end.
What was it you stole? Twelve yards of lace and a pair of stockings? I don't see him following it through.
I'm not going out there to die in that boat.
Now, We've got one shot left.
If I take the boat over and we leave them here we gonna need you, the whole mosketers.
If killing Bryant saves our lives then that's what has to be done.
She won't stand by if it comes to a fight.
Can you kill her then? We had a plan plan for a man who'd been sick of being treated like animals.
We've come all this way, and nothing has stopped us.
But if we stay here, we're finished.
Now you made no secret of not wanting me along.
One woman in a boat of men, it's a daft idea.
But if you leave me and Will and our children here you'll come across a wind you can't read a beach you can't land at a rock you can see.
This man, Will, is the one who got us here and Will is the one who guessed Timor.
He's sailed from England to Spain and back again in boats no bigger than ours and in storms far worst than you saw last night.
Going out there in that boat is madness.
Yes, it is madness.
A wonderful madness.
The kind that strong men grab with both hands.
Not the kind that eats away at weak, frightened men.
Now, there's a strong wind, we should take it.
Let's go.
No, Charlotte! He's still with us.
It takes more than a boat trip out with you bastards to finish me off.
To 'Spain and back, in a boat smaller than this ' Will got us this far.
He can't be blamed for the wind giving up on us.
I'd rather die like this.
- At least it's our own doing.
- Yours more than anyone's.
You didn't need to hold a musket over us.
One smile, and you'd have us swimming across.
Come on.
- Martin, stop.
- Bastards! We commend to God No.
Since He's not out here.
We commend to the sea the body of William Allen who was a thief like the rest of us.
Some judged to be bad, but to us who knew him Leave it.
We'd be fighting for what's already lost.
Beby.
Baby! Soldiers! You turned us around and sailed us back.
Dutch! Dutch! Mary Bryant! You saved our miserable bloody lives! So, we may thank God for the supply has returned safely.
Lord Sydney writes another change of policy.
It seems Parliament has declared us a success.
By what criteria? More resources are to be allocated other supply ships are on the way, and more convicts are to be transported as well.
Fifty thousand more.
Cheese! Barrels of it! The odour! I am to be re-called to England.
A new Governor has already been appointed.
Your prayers have been answered! Just as we were becoming 'a success'.
Officers are to be given the choice of staying with the benefit of land and convict labour.
Or they may choose to return to England.
- England.
- England.
And of course all bills and any notes of debt signed by myself as a merchant seaman will be honored by the British government.
I give you a warn, given our circumstances I don't see any other way to proceed.
When our ship went down it took not only our fortunes but all papers concerning our legal identity too.
- Mister - Parker.
John and Elizabeth Parker.
Mr.
John Parker your ship was lost where exactly? A reef, amongst hundreds of them.
Such a distance, in such a small boat? Incredible.
And no other survivors? We saw others scramble into boats, but - Is it true? - My wife, Marleen.
- Mr.
And Mrs.
Parker.
- Look at them! Exhausted, starving, and with children.
And of course you stand them to attention and interrogate them.
Well, how was I to know who they were? Enough! - Hello! - Bebe Emanuel Here he comes.
That's our boy.
Welcome! And look at you, Mr.
John Parker.
I went and married the perfect gentleman.
And I went and married a real pistol.
We did it! We did it! Oh, sorry, 'Mr.
Small', it's just You look like a pop stuck cock.
I never settled on the name 'Henry Small'.
It's a fine name, none of us will forget it and it does sort of suit you.
Darling, you come with me.
Mr.
Parker? -It is 'Mr.
Parker', isn't it? -Oh, yes, yes.
Excuse me, Mrs.
Parker.
I have been considering your predicament, Mr.
Parker.
You will be our guests until we find you a ship bound for Europe.
We're very grateful, sir.
I will introduce you to those that matter in this town and reassure that they may supply and loan to you confidence.
But first I need your name on a document - you know the truth about her.
She's extraordinary, I promise you.
Promise you.
It seems that you did not given an entirely full account of yourself.
It seems that you are the real hero of this incredible journey.
It was you who persuaded everyone that it was possible to get to Timor.
and when all the men had given up hope it was you who found the strength and courage to go on.
It was John's skill with the boat that guided us here.
we all played a part.
But without your determination and your perseverance.
it would have been for nothing.
If Mr.
Small is to be believed it was you who delivered the souls in that boat to safety, and you alone.
You know it.
You must be so proud of her.
My God, if she asked for it they'd sign over the whole bloody country to her.
He knows we're not right.
You keep walking around in circles like an anxious dog.
and he might try to find out.
Oh, John, I need you to sign these.
-Silk? -It's being made up into shirts.
There's enough here to rig out a ship.
A man of my position has to keep up with appearances.
We've everything we need and there's you finding.
fault with our nice fat goose.
I'll be happy when I'm looking at English water.
And where I won't stick out in a crowd.
- Where's your mamma? - In heaven.
In you.
And in the roar of the sea.
In the stars you look up at.
in the stories she used to tell me.
My father, you'll see him when we get to England.
A big bear of a man.
He'll want to know all about your adventures.
And he'll be so proud of you.
because you can keep a secret, deep, deep down inside you.
The bad man in the red coat.
It's just a dream.
We're safe now.
God, I can't get used to it.
Not seeing myself in a mirror for four years.
You've been through a lot, it's taken its toll.
- what? - You best get ready.
- Not tonight.
- We cannot go.
And I can't spend another night talking about a life.
I've never led, trying not to trip myself up with every word.
We don't have a choice.
Well if we don't, and we can't be who we are then this is just another prison.
You'd rather go back to the one we came from? Reckon you could get us back there, single handed? Don't blame me for the way people talk about what happened in that damn boat.
I never exaggerated my part in it, or played down yours.
And how is my young scholar, today? Excellent progress.
Your father was very remiss, educating his sons.
and neglecting his daughters.
I have the idea of education frightened right out of me.
which is why I have so much to learn.
Well, your father is in for a shock when you return to England.
We have everything we need here, it's just the heat.
It's incredible, some days are so Captain Bligh is a real hero.
Captain Bligh! No, no, no.
he traveled further than you did to get here.
You have to give him credit for that.
The resolution in France Your journey was thru much calm waters.
Straight waters Captain Bligh traveled all the way thru here.
Captain Bligh.
I did better than Bligh.
Timor.
- Where Bligh started from - Excuse me.
Botany Bay, where I started from.
John! John! Governor Wanjon, do you really think it possible that we could.
have traveled from where would this - this 'Botany Bay' be about there? - Even further south than that.
We traveled all that way to here? In that boat? With children? Govern Wanjon, we cannot prove who we are.
you can only judge us by what you see.
And if you can see no good in me then my only hope is that you can see it in these fine gentlemen.
with whom it has been my good fortune to travel with.
If you chose to see us as criminals.
then that is our unfortunate fate.
No, no, we see nothing of the kind.
I can only apologize for my husband's fondness for drink.
and his strange sense of humor.
- If I just knew why.
- Because I was drunk! Look at you! Do you really think you Mrs.
Elizabeth Mary Parker.
Yes, because I have to.
And if we ever get back to England.
you'll still be wearing that dress? No.
But Elizabeth Parker will be able to read and write.
not much, but enough to teach our children.
so they don't have to stink of fish their whole lives.
You'd be better off here.
Marry a Dutchman.
God knows you've got enough of them lying at your feet.
No witnesses, no paper.
We were blessed by a fool on a beach.
It wasn't legal outside of the colony.
You're free.
I've never thought of myself as being anything other than free.
ever! And so we were trapped in paradise.
and it was the most went by excepting our unlucky fate.
Now where can she be? Hello, my angel.
Charlotte? We are going home.
- English? - Yes.
Yes, four men, a woman and two children.
And in the end it was the young woman who got them across.
And.
.
what is her name? Elizabeth Parker.
An amazing young woman.
Elizabeth Parker.
They're gone.
There is no way out of Kupang, except by water.
My God, they've led you a merry dance.
Come on, Nani.
Go, go! Go, go! - Come on! Come on! - What? Ralph Clarke! He came after us.
Take him! You! If things went wrong, we were to make for a fishing.
village west of here, a mile up the coast.
Alright.
Let's go! Go! Go! - Will! - Where is she? - Clarke! - Come here! - No - Stop! Stop! Stop! Lieutenant Clarke, thank God you're here! They forced me onto that damn boat, put a pistol on my head.
I was never part of it, never! He's over there! The village is two hours away from here ask them to take you to 'New Island'.
I will let Will know where you are.
You must think very different of me now.
If I were governor, you would have protection from 'English Justice'.
I'd grown very fond of Elizabeth Parker.
I would have liked to have known Mary Bryant.
Go! Go! Go! Come on, Charlotte, come on.
Come on! Walk, damn you.
Oh, Charlotte! No, Charlotte.
It will make you sick.
I have a choice of two ships to bring me home.
I chose this passage because I had to know.
I've thought of nothing but you.
I'd never been so happy when you came to me with the children and asked my help.
That short time we had together.
You.
.
You were so so good to us.
And now you help us again.
I hated deceiving you.
'Wilfulness' is the root of all sin.
Each of us has a daily battle to rein ourselves in.
You were the test I failed.
Twice.
Where's Will? Where's my husband? You felt nothing for me.
- Please - You have no idea who I am.
All of these? An army couldn't have eaten and drunk this much.
They had very'healthy' appetites.
And these! You gave me notes of credit from a brothel! From our limited knowledge of English ways admittedly mainly gossip about your royal family and members of parliament we understood that the brothel was very much a part of the daily round.
These were thieves, convicts! They said otherwise, how were we to tell? And since William Bryant was not a merchant seaman his signature has no authority.
Until those bills are paid in full the convicts will not be allowed to leave.
Then as an officer of the King, I will personally honor them until I am recompensed on my return.
So how much exactly is owing? If you take her back, they will hang her.
And if I leave them behind I become the criminal.
Where's Will? Where is he? The nine months sea passage back to England was in far worse conditions than those I had traveled out.
And my children carried a tropical sickness with them.
Again, again.
you.
.
will run under a blue sky along tall proud cliffs with the sea crashing into them.
And you'll be with strong, proud people.
And no matter what happens to you you'll never give up, it's in your blood.
Almighty God, we commit the bodies of these infants Charlotte and Emmanuel Bryant to the deep.
In the knowledge that they were innocent children we pray that they may rest in peace with you in heaven.
Amen.
Damn you! My baby! My baby! My baby! Mary Let her go.
Let her go.
There are mobs, chanting her name on every street.
She's in every newspaper: 'The Girl from Botany Bay'.
Mindless accounts, turning her into a hero.
'Mary Bryant's escape was perhaps the most hazardous, the most hazardous, the most wonderful effort made by a person to regain their liberty'.
She'll be a three week wonder.
There's only one sentence the court can hand down, and after a well attended execution the world will soon forget about 'The Girl from Botany Bay'.
'Compared with the dreadful sufferings that they endured on their voyage, the three convicts consider Newgate prison to be a paradise'.
The same writer tells of the overwhelming public support.
we have an eminent lawyer, Mr.
Boswell.
has been arguing that the law should be seen to be dispensing forbearance and tolerance in such turbulent times.
All presents from your admirers.
Please, no more gifts.
And no more gawping visitors.
Mary! if you were to speak out, we might stand a chance.
You were an inspiration to us in that boat.
now you're an inspiration to thousands of others.
I cannot see why the events of my life should be of any interest to anyone.
You know the truth.
You lived it.
And yet you read these stories over and over and hang onto them as if they were true.
'Courage' killed the one man I loved.
And it took my children.
And now it will finish us off.
If we had accepted our fate none of this would have happened.
Now, these letters of credit for which you've been seeking recompense.
His majesty's government cannot be seen to be honoring the brothel bills of escaped convicts.
Or the massive amounts of liquor and luxury items they consumed silk, shorts,silk dresses.
I acted out of a sense of duty.
Yes, but The perception is that you acted rather rashly.
But it was the only way to get them off the island.
Had I not acted, they would still be at large in Timor.
Given their current popularity, there are many in government who wish that they still were.
The court has heard in the testament of Lieutenant Ralph Clarke that the three prisoners along with others.
who did steal a boat and equipment valued at over fifty pounds.
also three muskets, shot and powder and several articles of significant worth.
The prisoners by their own admission have broken their transportation orders.
They are therefore found - guilty as charged.
- No! No! No! - No! No! - This must stop! Let them speak! Let them speak! They have a right! There's nothing to be said! Order! Order! - I'm no hero.
- There is nothing to be said! And I've no ambition to be made into one.
There are some in this court today who have tried to make me something that I am not.
I'm guilty as charged, as are the two men standing beside me.
Not many of us transported can claim to be innocent.
Some are wicked and and deserved to be feared but most are not.
Most are men and women who wish their lives to feed themselves and their families.
Guilty we may be, but worthless we are not.
There are many like us in this country.
And to transport us away, is another country's gain and this country's loss.
Those that survive the harshness of the colonies are the true heroes.
I tried to build a life amongst them and would have been content to be their companion.
But I stole away for the sake of my children.
I could not see them starve.
I have lost everything I hold dear to me: My husband my children.
So you can take my life.
But these men the courage they have should not be choked out of them.
All rise! James Martin, Thomas Watling and Mary Bryant you have been found guilty by this court on various counts of theft and that you did willfully break your transportation orders.
However However, some favorable circumstances have been humbly represented to us inducing the court to extend our grace and mercy to you and grant free pardon for the said crimes.
-What did he say? -She get off You are free.
Within a week, James Martin had got himself a passage back to New South Wales.
His thinking was that out there in a bold land a free man with his given 25 acres could make of himself what he chose.
Without the prejudice of who he once was.
Thomas Watling set off to find his sister happy in the knowledge that she lived.
miles from any sea or boats.
What would I find? Back with my family, in Cornwall?