Sure, you probably
know that Australia was settled by British
convicts, but chances are you have no idea just how
wild those convict ships could get, especially the first
ship full of female prisoners. This motley crew of
British women sent over by Great Britain in hopes
to reform the struggling convict colony of
New South Wales was made up of primarily
petty thieves and sex workers. And the complexity tragedy
and triumph of their story will completely blow your mind. Today, we're exploring the
terrifying and wild world of the Lady Juliana, a
special 18th century convict ship full of female
prisoners sent to Australia. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. Oh, and that's just not enough. Leave us a comment, and
let us know what topics you would like to hear about. Ahoy, mate, it's time to
hop aboard the Lady Juliana, the wild late 18th century
prison ship filled with women. Considering it was
the 18th century and you couldn't
exactly hop on a jet, the voyage from
England to Australia lasted about 10
brutally long months. As the ship voyage from port to
port in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the Lady
stopped in places like Rio de Janeiro and
Cape Town along the way. And these weren't
short them stops to buy souvenirs and
stretch their legs. Sometimes they'd be docked
for several weeks at a time. Often, the convicts made the
most of their global tour and did one of the few jobs
available to women at the time. As John Nicol, the
ship's steward, euphemistically
remembered, we did not restrain the people
onshore from coming on board through the day. The captains and seamen who
were in port at the time paid us many visits. The ladies kept at least
part of their earnings. Some of the ship's officers and
sailors, all men, of course, allegedly even got
in on the business. Sadly, their involvement
raises serious questions about the degree to which
these captive women were coerced into their activities. Whether out of love,
lust, coercion, boredom, or necessity, many
of the women onboard the ship became the wives of
the ship's officers and crew members. As the ship's Steward
John Nicol recalled in his memoir of the voyage,
when we were fairly out at sea, every man onboard took a
wife from among the convicts. They nothing loathe. While these marriages
were definitely not legal, they did sometimes serve
a practical purpose for the convicted women. Taking a lover
aboard the ship often meant you got to
sleep in a better bed. There was, however, at
least one partnership rooted in true love. Nicol, the ship's
steward, we just told you about seemed to have
fallen in love with prisoner Sarah Whitlam. He even intended to marry
her once her term ended, but sadly the two never
made it down the aisle. Nicol had to go back to Britain,
leaving Whitlam and their child behind in Australia. He attempted to find
her and reunite, but tragically they never
saw each other again. It's kind of like
the plot of Titanic, with a pregnancy
and convicted lady fell and thrown in the mix. And if you're taken by Nicol
and Whitlam's love story, I do have to warn you that
most of the partnerships aboard were not exactly
as star-crossed as theirs. The lack of privacy for
prisoners on convicts ships meant that crew members
had access to them. And their relations
and interactions could be nonconsensual,
considering the age of consent in 18th century Britain was
devastatingly low, 10 years old to be exact. Some crew members had no
problem taking teenage wives during the voyage. Historian Pamela Horne
identified 14-year-old Jane Forbes as one such young wife. She had a baby before
reaching Australia. The women of the Lady Juliana
had a particular purpose. Colonial officials hoped
that a shipload of women would help civilize the
budding convict colony. Considering most of the women
aboard were petty thieves, maybe they were hoping these
women would steal some hearts. According to one
British official, the increased presence
of women would promote a matrimonial connection
to improve morals and secure a settlement. The women were meant to
marry male colonists, which would supposedly create and
maintain respectable family life in the new colony. The women's prison sentences
aim to transform them into moral vessels
that would enable the recreation of the
British family unit abroad. The women being transported
to New South Wales on the Lady Juliana were prisoners,
but their lives were upended for
infractions that honestly don't seem like that big of
a deal from our 21st century gaze. Though some of the women
aboard the Lady Juliana might have been
sex workers, that's not why they were
sent to Australia. Sex work or harlotry was
not a transportable offense. In fact, most of the
women on the ship had been arrested and sentenced
for various degrees of theft. Their offenses ranged
from highway robbery to shoplifting
and pickpocketing. Mary Hook, for example,
was around 20 years old when the British court
commuted her punishment for stealing her employer's
money and goods from capital punishment to a seven year
sentence in New South Wales. So basically, she
was almost killed just because she stole
a few things from work, but instead the British
government mercifully sent her to an entirely
different continent. One of the most notable
convicts on the ship was Elizabeth Barnsley. She was convicted for the
dangerous and heinous crime of stealing some cloth. Anyway, Liz, the fabric
thief, quickly became a leader during the voyage. John Nicol wrote
about her saying, "she was very kind to her
fellow convicts, who were poor. They were all
anxious to serve her. She was as queen among them." Barnsley who ended up
fashioning a career as a madam, while board the ship, was
instrumental in overseeing her fellow convicts
economic activities at every port along the way. Though they were not being
transported to New South Wales for prostitution, many
of the women aboard the Lady Juliana may have been sex
workers in addition to whatever petty crimes they committed. A robust harlotry
economy existed in 18th century Britain. So it's reasonable to
assume that at least some of the 200 plus convicts took
part in that line of work. The women aboard
the Lady Juliana came from British prisons. Though a prison
reform movement began to grow in the
late 18th century, the prison conditions they
escaped were deplorable. Prisons were overcrowded,
and disease spread swiftly. Just existing in a
prison could accidentally lead to a death sentence. And, yes, it was
still a prison ship. And, yes, most of the
passenger convicts slept just above the ship's
garbage and sewage deck, but the women of
the Lady Juliana had something that
their land and prison counterparts didn't, consistent
access to medical care. The ship had a surgeon and
was kept relatively clean. Also, the women
weren't chained up like prisoners on
other convict ships. And they could barter
for improved conditions through various favors. Part of the reason the
passengers on the Lady Juliana enjoyed better conditions was
because the British government oversaw it, unlike the other
ships in the second fleet. All the other vessels were
operated by Camden, Calvert, and King, a notorious and
prolific slave trading company. Only five women perished
aboard the Lady Juliana compared to the 267 deaths
reported by the other ships. So while it wasn't
a Carnival Cruise, at least most of the women
didn't straight up die. The vast majority of the
women who embarked on the Lady Juliana were in their 20s
and 30s, but no fewer than 51 of them around 22%
were teenagers. Mary Wade was one such
teen who could have been as young as 11 while aboard. Scholars debate about
her exact age though. Mary was the
youngest on the ship. Like many of her
shipmates, Wade ultimately married and had a large number
of children in Australia. While there wasn't too much
trouble making aboard the Lady Juliana during its
11 month voyage, one notable issue did arise
involving drunkenness leading to disorderly behavior. But come on, if
you are on a ship full of cool criminal
chicks, wouldn't you want to throw back a few
tequila shots with your girls? To curb her so-called
rowdiness, crew members made passenger Nance Farrell
wear a repurposed wooden barrel jacket to keep her from being
too much of a drunk mess. When that didn't
work, they resorted to flogging her 12 times. Yikes. Some of the women
aboard the Lady Juliana were already mothers before
the ship departed England. And so they brought
their children with them. Many of the convict
passengers became pregnant and even gave birth
during the long voyage. Historians generally believe
five to seven babies were born on the ship, but
Steward John Nicol suggested no less than 20 had
been born while the ship was in port at Rio. They were prepared
for the births. The ship had received a
small donation of baby linens before leaving England. This brings a whole new meaning
to the concept of water births. Once the women of
the Lady Juliana arrived in their new
homeland of New South Wales, they quickly discovered they
could enjoy freedoms there that they couldn't in England,
even though they were prisoners with few rights who were put in
difficult and often dangerous positions. Women arriving in
Australia were free from certain
British moral codes, even while colonial
officials expected them to be vessels of morality. English laws that marked
children of unwed mothers as illegitimate, for
example, were not enforced. Though being transported
to a new colony to get married and propagate
British family life was no doubt a complete
and total drag, many women made the most
of their circumstances in Australia. Some Lady Juliana passengers
became upwardly mobile once their prison terms
ended and even started their own businesses. Ann Marsh for one found
success after being abandoned by her ship husband. She got started and ran
a variety of businesses, including a liquor shop
and a ferry company. You go girl. While they may have had a rough
and terrifying experience, it's no doubt the
ship full of women made a lasting
impact on Australia and changed the course
of history forever. The women of the
Lady Juliana became known as the founding
mothers of Australia. Between their side
hustles and ports of call and the romantic
bartering aboard the ship, their journey has gone
down in history books as one of the most legendary. What do you think of the
women aboard the Lady Juliana? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from Our Weird History.
Bet that's a scurvy place. The only prison I worked in that gave me the willies was the Florida State Correctional Institution in Lowell Florida. It's the big house for women including women's death row. Those women would look at you in a way that made things real clear what would happen if they caught you alone.