ESCAPE FROM PORTLAND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8178, 20 March 1905, Page 4

ESCAPE FROM PORTLAND.

EXCITING CHASE AND RECAPTURE.

Two convicts succeeded in breaking out of Portland prison on Monday, January 16, only to be recaptured and brought back the same evening. They are two London men, named Vincent and Wilkinson, the former a baker and the latter a clerk, who were undergoing sentence for burglary. Curiously enough, both were tattooed with the design of a sailor and two flags. They were confined in adjoining cells. One of the men had managed to secrete a small crowbar in his cell, and with this instrument he broke through tno ceiling of his apartment. By the use of a rope he ascended through the opening, and then proceeded to effect the rescue of his companion. The howling of the wind, and the heavy sea which raged round the island during a heavy storm, prevented the sound of the ceiling breaking reaching tho warders. Armed with their crowbar and a rope, the two convicts clambered through a skylight to the roof of the prison, and selected a suitable place for descent. The men had yet to pass three heavily barred doors, but the crowbar again played its part, the locks were smashed, and the convicts were soon outside the prison. It was then between four and five o'clock. The morning was intensely dark, and it was raining. The prison guards were immediately summoned, and search parties sent out into the quarries and every likely hiding place on the island. Men of the Warwick Regiment were called out, and every road was patrolled. Sentries were posted, and the solitary road that connects Portland twith the mainland was well watched. The townspeople also turned out in numbers to watch the hunt for the men. The search was rewarded after a comparatively short time. Vincent in jumping from a wall had a fall, in which he broke an ankle. With Vincent leaning on him Wilkinson made his way to the Easton railway and walked along the line. Where Easton , Lane joins the line the men scrambled out of a deep cutting. Wilkinson, after leaving his companion at a blacksmith's shop, proceeded alone. He had improvised a pair of civilian trousers to tonceal his prison garb by wrapping two empty coal bags round his legs, and he wore' a light overcoat and cap. After he had gone down Easton Lane some way, a quarryman named Thomas Dine met h'm and exclaimed, "That's one of them." Wil kinson made no attempt to get away or resist, but replied, "I should think so." He also said he had a sentence of 16 years, and had served four. His captor conducted him to the prison. Vincent was found at the blacksmith's ship by n, party of quarrymen, who conveyed him back on a hand waggon to the gaol. Vincent some time ago mado an attempt to ureak out of the Wormwood Scrubbs prison. _____