The Floating Brothel - Sian Rees > Reviews > Vital Cargo

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	High
How interesting was the book?	Captivating
How useful was it?	Pretty useful
Would you read it again?	Yes
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Interesting true story of a convict ship, detailed coverage of court records, readable
Disadvantages:	Some details inevitably speculative

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

In 1788 petty street crime was rife in London. Those caught in the act could expect the "Justice" they received to be swift and severe, with little opportunity to present their defence and no notice taken of mitigating circumstances such as poverty. Prisoners awaited their fate in increasingly overcrowded, unsanitary and disease-ridden gaols. Sentences focussed on punishment not rehabilitation. Even petty criminals could receive long sentences of penal servitude and an increasing number of women fell into this category. Theft above a certain level automatically attracted the death penalty, although this was sometimes commuted to "transportation to parts beyond the seas". Being involved in a greater crime such as counterfeiting could still result in a woman being burned alive at the stake. While the welfare of prisoners was very low on the agenda and stiff sentences were seen as a necessary deterrent to others, it was recognised that something had to be done to rid the country of its high prison population.

Around the same time, Governor Phillip of the newly created penal colony in New South Wales had a problem. He needed women to satisfy the sexual needs of his men and to provide a "breeding bank" for the future colony. He was remarkably explicit about his plans for them: some would be allocated to respectable "wifehood" while others would be used to staff a form of "whores' ghetto" for use by the male convicts in his charge. In one of his first dispatches home, he requested women to be sent out to the colony. Women sentenced to transportation were ideal candidates.

In 1789, the Lady Julian (also known as the Lady Juliana) was one of a number of ships to set sail for Botany Bay to address Governor Phillip's needs. Her cargo of 237 women convicts had been procured by emptying the female cells of gaols in London and across the country. Her year-long voyage would include stops at Tenerife, the Cape Verde Islands, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town. Her eventual arrival at her destination would not be quite as welcome as might have been predicted.

Siân Rees has used diverse contemporary records to research in detail the characters that comprised the ship's human cargo, their probable experiences at sea and what became of them on arrival.

The extensive use of court records in the early chapters provides the reader with an overwhelming amount of detail. It is skilfully presented in a way which brings out the diversity of cases involved, and engenders sympathy for many of the convict characters.

For the voyage itself, one of the sources used is the autobiographical "Life and Adventures of John Nicol, mariner" who was the steward aboard ship. Anyone who is familiar with his book will know that he met the love of his life, Sarah Whitelam on board the Lady Julian and that she bore him a son. He was not the only sailor to find himself a convict "wife" at least for the voyage duration. And she was not the only convict to give birth during that eventful voyage. Thanks to Siân Rees' research in "The Floating Brothel" we learn more about Sarah's background, and more of what became of her, more indeed than John Nicol, himself, could find out at the time.
But Sarah is only one of many characters whose progress is followed.

There is inevitably a certain degree of speculation on the extent to which the women were allowed to disembark in ports and/or practise their "profession" on board. In some cases, repair work necessitated emptying the ship; in others it is clear that crew and convicts colluded with one another for mutual business advantage. Siân Rees guides the reader through the evidence to the most probable conclusions. In other aspects we have a distinct advantage from a modern perspective to understand, for example, why scurvy broke out despite the best-known precautions of the time. What is clear overall is that, compared to many voyages of the period, the ship was remarkably successfully run for the welfare of her cargo, and that the women themselves contributed greatly to this success. Many arrived in a better state of health than they had been in when they left England. Very few died - unlike in the so-called "coffin ships" that followed.

Towards the end of the book, we gain a glimpse of the harsh realities of life in a remote fledgling colony. Some would start to view their time on board the Lady Julian as a fond memory. Others would plunge into all the excitement their new life had to offer.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves to get engrossed in historical detail. It made me feel glad that I was born in the twentieth century, on many counts.

The Floating Brothel is published by Headline Book Publishing, a division of Hodder Headline, available in paperback priced £7.99 ISBN 0 7472 66328