# What Does "Transported" Mean In This Usage?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-transported-mean-in-this-usage/523728>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 5, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-transported-mean-in-this-usage/523728 "2010-01-05T06:18:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-transported-mean-in-this-usage/523728/21 "2010-01-06T10:27:36Z")

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“…\* thought of an old bridge that I know in Sturminster Newton in Dorset. It still has a cast-iron notice bolted to it that warns anybody thinking of damaging or defacing the bridge in any way that the penalty is transportation. To Australia. Now, Sturminster Newton is a lovely town, but it astonishes me that the bridge is still standing.”

– Douglas Adams, from ‘Riding the Rays’, reprinted in “The Salmon of Doubt.”

I shared that here as a reference to the use of ‘transportation’ as a penalty. (And because I like the punch line.)

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**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-transported-mean-in-this-usage/523728/22 "2010-01-06T11:01:10Z")

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A not entirely wild guess is that Miss Saunders and Miss Bryant were both young and nubile - eg: potential assets in Australia - and hanging them could also have been ‘unpopular’

Acting under orders would also contribute, if they had disobeyed they would have received a thorough beating from Mrs Tonney

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