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

by Rees, Sian

• ISBN13: 9780786886746
• ISBN10: 0786886749
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-12
• Publisher: Hachette Books

Summary

In July 1789, two hundred and thirty-seven women convicts left England for Sydney Cove in Australia's New South Wales on board a ship called the Lady Julian. Historian Sian Rees delved into court documents, letters, and journals to extract firsthand accounts of the women's experiences on board a ship that both held them prisoner and offered them refuge from their oppressive existence in London. Forced by the economy of the times to beg, steal, and sell themselves, the women of the Lady Julian defined resourcefulness, and set up profitable businesses in their various ports of call. This is the rollicking and exhaustively researched story of that extraordinary group of women and their voyage halfway around the world. Book jacket.

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	p. xv
Disorderly Girls	p. 1
Fair British Nymphs	p. 19
Gaol Fever	p. 35
Galleons Reach	p. 45
Life in the River	p. 55
Capital Convicts Condemned	p. 66
Leaving London	p. 80
Becoming in Turns Outrageous	p. 93
Santa Cruz de Tenerife	p. 105
Crossing the Line	p. 124
The Birth of John Nicol Junior	p. 141
The Wreck of the Guardian	p. 157
Cape Town to Sydney Cove	p. 169
A Cargo So Unnecessary	p. 184
Love Pilgrimages	p. 202
Principal Characters	p. 215
Select Bibliography	p. 219
Index	p. 225
Map: The Voyage of the Lady Julian, July 1789-June 1790	p. 238
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.