Plymouthhistory

Not all those who left Plymouth on important voyages did so voluntarily. Convict ships bound for
Australia set off from Plymouth carrying cargoes of unwilling passengers the vast majority of whom
would never see England again once the coast of the South West slipped over the horizon.
Political prisoners such as the Tolpuddle Martyrs joined the unfortunate common criminals in their
journeys of misery to the other side of the world. Although in their case, the Tolpuddle Martyrs
were later reprieved and so became some of the few prisoners who actually travelled in the
opposite direction and alight in Plymouth as free men once more.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
Plymouth also provided the starting off point for myriad settlers looking for a fresh start elsewhere
in the ever growing colony. The first four ships to New Zealand departed from Plymouth with
emigrants determined to make a new life for themselves thousands of miles away. Other voluntary
emigrants followed to Canada, Australia and South Africa amongst other places.
The human traffic was by no means one way throughout Plymouth's long history. Mariners have
long been in the habit of recruiting anyone with a pulse to help with the rigging or running of a
ship. The Royal Navy happily recruited crew from prize ships or foreign ports to help feed her
insatiable desire for manpower; French, Spanish, Americans, Caribbeans, Africans, Asians all
passed through the city with varying degrees of loyalty to the Crown! Those who resisted the 'offer'
of employment could be shipped back to Plymouth before being escorted to prison on Dartmoor.
Many graves of Britain's foes are located in and around the city.
And of course, Britain's soldiers and marines continued to march through the port on to new wars
often in more and more bizarre and remote locations as the Empire lapped up to yet stranger
shores and entered wars that were little understood by the soldiers and sailors who had to fight
them. Yet, they were dutifully cheered off from Plymouth and welcomed back with open arms on
their return; not that everyone did return as many of the gravestones and memorials in Plymouth
and in the far flung corners of the World attest to.
In the 19th century, Plymouth's rising importance led to military planners building extensive
fortifications to prevent it from being attacked from the landward side. There had always been
formidable defences on the shoreline at least as long as the Royal Navy had used it as a base.
But after the Crimean War, British planners were concerned that a continental power might land
an army on any one of the many beaches of the South Coast and move overland to capture the
Dockyards and destroy the capability of the Royal Navy to defend Britain. Similar plans were put in
place to defend Portsmouth and one of the most expensive fortification programs since the
building of Hadrian's Wall was undertaken on mainland Britain. The defence of Plymouth and the
Dockyard was regarded on a par with the defence of the realm.
The age of explorers had not yet been completed. Many of the polar explorers of the late 19th and
early 20th Century hailed or at least sailed from Plymouth bringing the final phase of imperial
exploration back to the place that started England's initial phases of discovery. Scott of the
Antarctic is the most famous of these, but many of the polar explorers had very strong
connections to this maritime city.
The twentieth century may have seen Plymouth's attention focus back on European conflicts but
the imperial connections did not cease as men, supplies and equipment flooded into the city from
the Empire and beyond in the First and Second World Wars. Indians, Australians, Canadians,
New Zealanders passed through Plymouth on their way to fight or were brought back to Plymouth
to be treated in her hospitals before being repatriated home.