The Floating Brothel

Book Details

Library

Author

Sian Rees

Category

Non Fiction/History

Editor

Reference #

Contributor

Location

Translator

Status

Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton

Owner

Country

Australia

Personal

Language

Read it

Yes

Year Published

2001

Date Read

09/04/2006

ISBN

0733615120

Personal Rating

 4/10

LCCN

Purchase

Edition

Purchase Date

13/03/2006

Printing

Acquired from 

Ormac Books

Binding

Book Club Edition

Price

$7.50

Pages

248

Value

$0.00

Overview

"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."

Such is the general view of the voyage of the Lady Julian from England to the new colony of New South Wales, transporting more than 2000 convict women, mainly taken from London's fever-ridden, overcrowded Newgate gaol. The reality was both more complex and more interesting, dramatically different from the well-known stories of hellish journeys to Australia. The woman aboard the Lady Julia arrived in Australia healthier and happier than they had ever been before.

According the custom, each sailor was entitled to take a woman, and arragement that brought privileges to the woman as well as relief for the me. John Nicol, steward and ship's cooper, fell deeply in love with 19-year-old Sarah Whitelam, convicted of theft worth more than 51 shillings. Their child was one of several born during the voyage. What happened to them after arriving at Port Jackson is one of the many fascinating stories in this lively and refreshing book. Sian Rees casts a new light on an important and under-documented corner of Australia's history.

Comment

This book is divided into clear sections; in the first, the women are introduced and their lives and crimes detailed, after a grim picture of poverty-ridden London is painted. In the second, the trip gets underway and encounters all manner of delays and disasters, and the third section is a summary of how the women settled into their lives in the colony (or not).

The details surrounding each woman and each event is fascinating, but there is an awful lot of it. More than twenty woman are profiled, and more names are dropped along the way - I almost went back to the beginning to take notes so that I could keep them all straight in my mind. Each hardship and misfortune is explained as best they could be from the records that remain, and it's hard not to sympathise with the women, and the men assigned to get them from one side of the world to the other in a leaky old boat.

While parts of this book were riveting, others were overwhelming with the amount of detail and the variety of names mentioned. I think this book would be an excellent resource for anyone looking to trace their family history, should their relatives have been on board, but it's not exactly a quick read.