Sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction. And that’s what I am trying to explore in the ‘Stranger Things’ series. Here, you will come across true stories that are bizarre, interesting, and worth knowing. Happy reading!

The departure

It’s 1789, England. Deborah Davis was rotting in prison. She was sentenced to death for stealing 15 pounds and 13 shillings. Deborah was awaiting her death when she received a rather strange command. She was told that instead of being hanged she would be shipped to the empire’s penal colony down south — British Australia!

Like Deborah, 225 other female convicts were selected to be a part of the voyage to an entirely different continent. The chosen convicts were thieves, prostitutes, and con artists. They were supposed to await their death in London’s overcrowded prison, but instead, they were being shipped out of the country to a much larger ‘prison’ where they would join other ‘inmates’. The 226 female convicts boarded Lady Juliana and braced themselves for a voyage of a lifetime.

The journey

The crew was all male. The passengers were all female. Lust was in the air! The male crew took ‘wives’ during the journey. Such an arrangement worked seemingly well for the men as well as the women, as men received good company and the women received certain privileges that made their journey manageable.

For instance, John Nicol, a Scottish steward on the ship fell in love with 18-year-old Sarah Whitlam the moment he was instructed to unchain the teenager upon boarding. Days into the voyage, young Sarah bunked with John.

The conditions on Lady Juliana were favourable (compared to other ships of the Second Fleet), as the convicts were allowed to roam about freely. Overall, the ship was hygienic. One of the crew members was also a surgeon; so, help was present if needed.  

Lady Juliana halted at several ports along the way: Tenerife, Cape Verde, Rio Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope. Such halts came across as a breather, enabled a change of scenery, and provided the opportunity to replenish stock.

Some women saw such halts across ports as a chance to service and entertain seamen. Here, Elizabeth Barnsley emerged as the Queen of Lady Juliana as she took it upon herself to manage these ‘endeavours’ of the women. Elizabeth looked after the women’s needs and was seen as a motherly figure. Such adventures led to Lady Juliana being referred to as The Floating Brothel or the Love Boat.

The anticipation of the arrival

Lady Juliana, which was a part of the Second Fleet, arrived in Sydney, Australia in the year 1790. The other ships in the Second Fleet were Surprise, Neptune, Guardian, Scarborough, and Justinian.

It took Lady Juliana 11 months to reach its destination, the last of the ships to arrive. This was a rather excruciating wait for the other prisoners of the colony, who like these prisoners, were shipped to the distant continent in the First Fleet.

In the First Fleet, 11 ships sailed from England to Australia in 1787. Out of these, two were Royal Navy Vessels, six vessels transported convicts, and three were store ships. The First Fleet reached British Australia with around 600 male convicts and 200 female convicts. This unequal ratio was troubling.

Allegedly, the British Government thought sending women in the Second Fleet would lead to improved morals along with a rise in the population. Thus, to prevent males from finding male partners, the idea of sending a ship full of convict women as breeding mares resulted in an unofficial breeding initiative. The women were expected to ‘civilise’ the convicts and establish the British Family Unit overseas. This initiative reached fruition when Lady Juliana reached Australia.

The arrival

Hundreds of people had gathered at the port to receive the Second Fleet. However, they were disappointed when they came to know of the cargo.

What they were waiting with bated breath for were food and livestock, but what they got was around 200 women, some about to give birth resulting in more mouths to feed. This news came at a time when six people were being hanged in the colony for stealing food!

The people in the colony would have loved it if instead of Lady Juliana, another ship of the Second Fleet, the Guardian, had arrived. That’s because the Guardian was carrying essential supplies. Unfortunately, it was stuck in an iceberg and eventually settled in Cape Town, never reaching Australia!

Second Fleet: The other ships

Just like the people of the colony awaited Lady Juliana and the Guardian, they had also previously gathered to see the first arrivals of the Second Fleet. But the visual the awaiting people saw was nothing short of a nightmare.

They saw men that were dead or were dying. There was an outward display of abuse. Several of the passengers suffered from all sorts of diseases. Those that survived the journey were starving and ultimately joined the already starving population of British Australia.

The primary reason attributed to such a horrific situation was privatisation gone awry. While the First Fleet was handled by the British Government, the Second Fleet was outsourced to private contractors.

It didn’t matter to the contractors whether the passengers survived or not, they were paid based on the number of people boarding the ship and not based on the number of people reaching the destination.

Besides, it was agreed that if stocks lasted, the contractors were free to sell the leftovers. This was viewed as an incentive by the contractors to keep the passengers famished, store the stock, and sell it to make a profit!

Some contractors were petrified that the convicts could create a security issue, so they kept the prisoners below deck, depriving them of sunlight and fresh air for the entire voyage.

The situation on Lady Juliana was starkly different from other ships because it was headed by a decent captain. These were huge learnings for the Government, which made sure adequate measures were taken in favour of the passengers during the Third Fleet.

The founding mothers of a modern civilisation

In the early 2000s, the makers of a documentary titled The Floating Brothel selected three contemporary women (decedents of Lady Juliana’s passengers) from several others who were interested in participating, to uncover their ancestor’s story.

They dug through court records, looked for old newspapers, sifted through shipping logs, and went through the account written by the Scottish steward of the ship, John Nicol. And they traced their roots.

One woman found out that she was a descendant of a prostitute. The other was a descendant of a convict imprisoned for stealing wheat. The third was a descendant of a street urchin.

Similarly, several of the women aboard Lady Juliana came to be known as the founding mothers, particularly Mary Wade, who headed a five-generation family of more than 300 members when she died at the age of 87!

Thus turned out to be the fate of the women who were about to face death, but the universe turned their lives upside down Down Under.

P.S.: Elizabeth Barnsley, the Queen of Lady Juliana, eventually amassed enough wealth to pay for a voyage back to England.

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Disclaimer: There are several versions of this story doing the rounds. However, the events narrated above are based on the following sources and some creative liberty has been taken to weave the narrative. The intent is to tell a fascinating and inspirational story and not to demean anyone or any collective.

Sources:

·       Dictionary of Sydney

·       News.com

·       News.com

·       PBS

·       Ranker

·       Dictionary of Sydney

·       The Sydney Morning Herald