&hlIn October of 1853, the "Julia Ann" arrived in San Francisco on her second return voyage from Sydney, Australia. She had on board John Mitchel and his family, a famous Irish patriot who had escaped from the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. Captain Pond and the "Julia Ann" assisted him in this escape. They picked him up in Tahiti on September 13th and brought him to San Francisco. Here is a link to Mitchel's account of this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=9_efAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA197&dq=John+Mitchel+%26+the+%22Julia+Ann%22&hl=en&ei=miCCTZfmLMGcgQfOnpjPCA&s

And here is another account:

http://books.google.com/books?id=FXxmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=John+Mitchel+%26+the+%22Julia+Ann%22&hl=en&ei=miCCTZfmLMGcgQfOnpjPCA&sa

And here is the Wikipedia account of John Mitchel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mitchel

Happy St. Patrick's Day!