POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Brown Bess India Pattern Musket

Object No. H9608

Earlier versions of this musket travelled to Australia with the First Fleet, arriving in here in 1788. The Brown Bess musket was the standard long arm supplied to the Marines at the time. Australia's first European sharp shooter, John McEntire, a convict entrusted to hunt for the first colony of Europeans, used a Brown Bess musket to hunt game. Escaped convicts had stolen arms prior to the gold rush; however, by-and-large the arms were stolen for fundamental survival, not to assist larceny of capital. John Caesar, a West Indian born convict who was transported to Australia on the First Fleet stole a Brown Bess musket, which was prised from his rigour mortis stiffened hand after he was shot at what is now Strathfield in Sydney's west. Damian McDonald Curator, 2012