What happens
Captain John Dodsworth commands a ship carrying about 400 convicts from London to Australia, with the brutal Finch as his mate. The convicts are searched before boarding, yet knives keep appearing and men are cut down in the hold. Finch takes a harsh line, and Jonathan Abbey, a prisoner the captain regards as dangerous, is shackled to his bunk. As violence spreads below decks, Dodsworth becomes uneasy about the crew and the safety of his own cabin. The Escape episode is presented as a sleeping draft from a story by Western Marta, adapted for radio by Anthony Ellis, with Ben Wright in the cast. It first aired on October 1, 1950.
A sailing ship on the high seas, bound from London to Australia with a cargo of convicts
Characters: Captain Dodsworth, Mr. Finch, Jonathan Abbey, Wilkes
Listen for: The searches of the convicts before boarding and the knives that keep turning up in the hold
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.