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As we waited in chain upon the quay
When I set eyes on that huge prison ship
We were taken far cross the sea
When the ship stopped at ports along journeys way
As for me I caught the steward’s eye
We sailed into Sydney Cove after a year
Though I survived the ordeal ashore
Time has now past and I’ve married again Simon Oliver The story In 1789 the American war of independence was over and a colossal amount of wounded and discharged service men returned to Britain in search of work. Up to this period a lot of jobs had been held be women who were now made unemployed to make room for their male counterparts. The sad result saw many women resorting to very desperate measures – theft, begging and prostitution. As a result the gaols around the country were splitting at the seams and were getting even more crowded with each passing week. There were even decommissioned war ships being used as prison hulks and this was still not enough. Before the war of independence, criminals had been shipped over to America for labour, but now this was no longer possible and the government looked too the newer colonies. It was decided that Australia would be very suitable for this purpose and shipments of convicts were sent out to Botany Bay. The story starts in 1789 with the very first ship of women convicts to be sent aboard the ‘Lady Julian’. Among these felons was nineteen year old Sarah Whitham who had been imprisoned for pawning her land ladies furniture. She was one of the first to board the Lady Julian and also one of the first to be taken as a ships wife by John Nicol the ships steward. In-fact each sailor was ordered to take a wife partly to keep sexual frustration at bay and to stop any trouble occurring during the voyage. The ship stopped at ports on the way and some of the more worldly women practised prostitution – it was all these antics that gave the ship the nickname, ‘floating brothel’. Ten of the women on board were made pregnant during the voyage by their ‘sailor husbands’ and Sarah was the first to give birth. Her baby, John Nicol Junior was delivered by the ships doctor who also successfully delivered other children as well. All the infants survived which was due to the healthy nutrition, clean sea air and sanitation. A much better result better than the major hospitals back in London were giving. These were loosing mothers and babies at a rate of three to one every week, due to the appalling conditions. When the ships company reached Sydney Cove after nearly a year, they found the colony near starvation. One of the supply ships had sunk and another was making a mad dash to Dutch South Africa to get emergency supplies. Even with the stores on board the Lady Julian it was calculated to make hardly any difference to the dire situation. The Lady Julian was ordered to return to England and it was a tragic brake up of couples and families who would not see each other again. This was such a problem that the governor ordered the land based marines to hold the ‘Julian’s’ crew at gun point thus not allowing them to leave the ship. The ship sailed and it was later recorded that John Nicol had jumped ship in the South China Sea. He was desperately trying to get back to Sarah and his son, but tragically he never succeeded. He tried to find Sarah for years but never found any news of her. He eventually died in his eighties in Edinburgh with his quest unfulfilled and still thinking of his love after all those years. Now Sarah was a different case. The last record shown was that the next day after the ship had sailed, she married another man. After that she was never heard of again. In the last verse of the song there is some poetic licence
that talks about Sarah being married again and telling her son of his natural
father. I like to think that though she was heart broken by all
these cruel events, she had to find another man quickly in order for her and her
son to survive. |
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