Dimensions
133 x 210 x 20mm
The Extraordinary True Story of Female Convicts Bound for Botany Bay.
'Not much attempt had been made to enforce discipline among the women, many of them London prostitutes, who had turned the ship into a floating brothel at her various ports of call.'
In July 1789, the "Lady Julian" sailed from England to the new colony of New South Wales, transporting more than 200 convict women, mainly taken from London's fever-ridden, overcrowded Newgate Gaol. The story of this "floating brothel" is both complex and fascinating, dramatically different from the well-known tales of other hellish journeys to Australia.
According to custom, each sailor was entitled to take a woman, an arrangement that brought privileges to the women as well as relief for the men. John Nicol, steward and ship's cooper for the voyage, fell deeply in love with 19-year-old Sarah Whitelam, convicted of theft. Their child was one of several born during the voyage. What happened to them after arriving at Port Jackson is one of the many poignant stories in this compelling book that casts new light on a significant but under-documented corner of Australia's history.
Based on masses of painstaking research into contemporary sources like the convicts' trial records and the first-hand account of the voyage written by John Nicol, this is a riveting work of recovered history.
