But the cunningly resourceful Porter and nine other convicts escaped, hijacked a ship and crossed the perilous South Pacific to Chile, passing themselves off as shipwrecked mariners, until betrayal led to discovery. Sian Rees discovered Porter's astonishing long-forgotten writings, and, inspired by his charisma and his defiance in the face of authority, has retold his extraordinary story with all the brio of her enormously popular The Floating Brothel.