The Floating Brothel The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts

by Rees, Sian

• ISBN13: 9780786867875
• ISBN10: 0786867876
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-06
• Publisher: Hachette Books

Summary

This riveting work of rediscovered history tells for the first time the plight of the female convicts aboard the Lady Julian, which set sail from England in 1789 and arrived in Australia's Botany Bay a year later. The women, most of them petty criminals, were destined for New South Wales to provide its hordes of lonely men with sexual favors as well as progeny. But the story of their voyage is even more incredible, and here it is expertly told by a historian with roots in the boatbuilding business and a true love of the sea.Sian Rees delved into court documents and firsthand accounts to extract the stories of these women's experiences on board a ship that both held them prisoner and offered them refuge from their oppressive existence in London. At the heart of the story is the passionate relationship between Sarah Whitelam, a convict, and the ship's steward, John Nicol, whose personal journals provided much of the material for this book. Along the way, Rees brings the vibrant, bawdy world of London -- and the sights, smells, and sounds of an eighteenth-century ship -- vividly to life. In the tradition of Nathaniel Philbrick's In th

Author Biography

Sian Rees was born and brought up in Cornwall, England, in a family of boatbuilders and designers. After receiving her degree in history, she spent several years abroad, and it was while living in Melbourne, Australia, that she first became interested in the Lady Julian

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
Disorderly Girls	1	(18)
Fair British Nymphs	19	(16)
Gaol Fever	35	(10)
Galleons Reach	45	(10)
Life in the River	55	(11)
Capital Convicts Condemned	66	(14)
Leaving London	80	(13)
Becoming in Turns Outrageous	93	(12)
Santa Cruz de Tenerife	105	(19)
Crossing the Line	124	(17)
The Birth of John Nicol Junior	141	(16)
The Wreck of the Guardian	157	(12)
Cape Town to Sydney Cove	169	(15)
A Cargo So Unnecessary	184	(18)
Love Pilgrimages	202	(13)
Principal Characters	215	(4)
Select Bibliography	219	(6)
Index	225	(13)
Map: The Voyage of the Lady Julian, July 1789--June 1790	238