Customer Reviews

The Girl From Botany Bay

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was aware that England used Australia as a place to send prisoners during the American Revolutionary War years and later, but I never realized how miserable the living conditions were and the human cargo that was shipped there arrived more dead than alive. Botany Bay actually was located on the southern shore of the island of Tasmania, but conditions were such that the prisoners were transferred to what is now Sydney harbor. Lawbreakers in England such as Mary Bryant were routinely sentenced to death by hanging. Mary was one of those whose life was spared and chosen to serve her sentence in Australia. After several punishing months at sea and living in filth on the ship in addition to becomming pregnant by a male passenger the group of convicts arrived at their destination. Living conditions for the prisoners encouraged everyone to plot their escape from this living hell hole. Mary, along with her husband, child, and other prisoners escaped and headed for the island of Timor. This is a story of sadistic guards who enjoyed abusing their authority by having violators whipped for escape attempts and other rule violations. Mary and her family were to be returned to England after being recaptured, but her husband and now two children both died before arriving. Mary expected to be resentenced to death, but James Boswell, a friend of King George, wrote asking for a pardon for Mary for all the trials and tribulations she had been through. His appeal was successful and Mary received a pardon along with a yearly annunity from James Boswell for her to live on. This is a book of human suffering while traveling on a ship in terrible weather in addition to the suffering while in captivity in Australia. The English weren't bashful in handing out death penalities to its citizens, and sentencing offenders to Australia to live in squalor if they survived the trip was a way of just getting these people out of their hair and the country. This is a sad chapter in the history of England.

Mary Broad had a brief moment of celebrity, and this is probably one of the only reasons we know so much about the life and times of not just Broad, but others like her. Women who lived a hand to mouth existence, who trod on the wrong side of the law, and then suffered the horrific consequences of British Justice in the late Eighteenth century.

Broad was committed to transportation to the extremely new colony of New South Wales in Australia, first imprisoned on the stinking hulks which had their own brutal justice systems on board. Then the terrible long journey half way round the world, only to reach Australia and suffer famine from failed crops.

Her stoicism in spite of enormous hardship and her ability to survive are testament to an extraordinary woman, and her story of survival is amazing.

Erikson has done a great job as usual drawing from sources to outline the social aspects of the time and combining them to reflect what she lived through where her accounts are limited. Certainly, there are many accounts of male life in transporation but few remain of what women's lot were. Sian Rees published a great book a few years ago called Floating Brothel, which I would highly recommend to read with this one - it follows a transport ship of women and what happened to them on the ship and after - as the title of that book reflects it was not an easy voyage.

Mary Broad escaped from Australia and was eventually recaptured and returned to Britain where she was imprisoned again, only the intervention of the writer, Boswell (who was famous for his connection to the Johnson) garnered a royal pardon for her.

Erickson has been a prolific but good writer, I have enjoyed many of her previous biographies including and excellent one on the Regency period. It was a very good read, but my only real quibble with it is I felt it was less fluid than some I have read lately which have been page turners (without being tabloid). It had a nice measured pace and I found I was kept interested in the outcome to the end. Overall a nice interesting history which should appeal to a wide range of readers.

Generally I don't enjoy non fiction quite as much as plain old fiction books, but this was an exception.

The story of Mary Broad is quite touching. Arrested for highway robbery and sentenced to hang, she was one of the first waves of convicts to be sailed halfway across the world to England's newest penal colony of Australia. Once there she made a daring escape with her husband, two small children and seven other men. They stole a small dingy and sailed all the way around Australia and then to Indonesia, where they were recaptured and taken back to England for trial. One in England, Mary, whose small children and husband had died since escaping, became a darling of the media and was pardoned.

This is an incredible story, and it's written almost in a novel like fashion, making it accessible to all readers. I look forward to reading more of the author's works.

If you enjoyed this book try reading Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough for a fictional account of the great prison experiment and information on the Norfolk Island settlement of the colony.

I was barreling through this quasi-historical, fictional "nonfiction" biography of Mary Broad when I came across this incredible declaration on page 52. "Efforts were made to prevent the scurvy from spreading; decks were washed with vinegar and smoked with brimstone. But with the constant flying spray and the sloshing water along the decks and in the hold, such attempts at improving hygiene were pitifully feeble, and soon the scurvy spread to the crew, some of whom became too weak to go aloft." The declaration is incredible because, as anyone who has read ANY nautical history book or novel knows, the spread of scurvy has absolutely NOTHING to do with bad hygiene and no amount of swabbing the decks will curtail it. Now, the British didn't know this back in the time of Mary Broad and this may be what the author is trying to indicate, but the way the sentences read, it appears that the author is the one who has no idea of cause for the most common and infamous scourge of the Royal Navy. This is either a bit of unforgivable ignorance or an extremely unfortunate choice of wording. This is also the point I put the book down and quit reading it.

This is undoubtedly one of the worst books I've ever read on Australian history and I've read a great many including several on Mary Bryant by authors who knew what they were talking about.
Almost everything about Mary Bryant in this book is just plain wrong. Or, to put it more clearly, most of it didn't happen that way. Don't waste your money.

Too much speculation by the author - and then a page later she says something that completely contradicts what she speculated might have occurred. The author's own note refers to the lack of historical information, and it shows. This would have been an interesting article - stretched to book length (and I'm being generous, since the pages are small, type is large and there is lots of empty space on the pages) it is thin and not satisfying.

A quick read. A disappointed Erickson fan am I! I thought the book was juvenile in comparison to Erickson's other works. Don't get me wrong--it wasn't horrible. I guess I expected more. More detail, more facts, more story, more depth. This book as no 'meat'. I do HIGHLY RECOMMEND Carolly Erickson as an author though.

A gripping page turner illustrating incredible endurance and survival of an eighteenth century English convict sent to Australia's Botany Bay.

Found guilty of highway robbery in 1787, Mary Bryant was sentenced to seven years imprisonment at England's newest penal colony in Botany Bay (Sydney Cove). She was one of more than a hundred convicts onboard the harrowing First Fleet.

The voyage out to Australia and then the trial and errors of establishing a settlement are alive with all the unbelievable horrors one can imagine. Their escape to Indonesia is an unsurpassed human feat of courage and determination. Scurvy, malaria, ocean storms, inhumane and cruel treatments, brutal living conditions, thirst and hunger, it's all here.

This is Mary Bryant's astonishing story and Carolly Erickson's descript narrative is of the highest caliber. Highly recommend.

This short book retelling the legendary tale of the Girl from Botany Bay--actually Sydney Cove--who was sentenced to penal camp labor in Australia for highway robbery in England in the late 1700s is an entertaining read.

Pieced largely from a few contemporary mentions of Mary Broad in newspapers, journals, and personal memoirs of people who were in the journey with her, Ms. Erickson has put together a short, well researched book.

Though less than 200 pages, the book could have probably been shorter. Since there is so little in the public record about Mary Broad, who was illiterate herself and hence couldn't write down her own story, Ms. Erickson has to spend a great deal of time on conjecture and educated guesses about what may have been going through Mary's mind at a particular point in time. This distraction aside, the book is still worth the short time it would take to read.

Terrifying story of the dangers of the sea and the horrors of life on prison ships.

Thank heavens I have never committed any of the crimes (or at least been caught) that would have doomed me to the punishment of being on a ship bound for Botany Bay.

Mary Broad's story of "Crime and Punishment" is a vivid description of 18th century survival under the harshest conditions.

Sealed into a filthy, animalistic hold of a ship and bound for halfway around the world to be imprisioned on the primative Botany Bay, Mary's life goes from bad to worse prompting a plan to escape via a small boat.

With her husband and friends, Mary sets off to get anywhere but Botany Bay. Battered by weather that would have challenged the largest of ships, the little group of escaped convicts suffer hunger and thirst, lose sight of the coast, and find themselves in the open sea.

Finally they drag into the harbor of Kupang where they are accepted and given the warmest of welcomes. Finally, for the first time in her life, Mary experiences pleasures of life that had always been out of her reach. But this dream-life comes to an end when the residents of Kupang realize that their new friends are escaped prisoners.

Mary is turned over to the British and returned to England. Standing trial once again she is to be remanded to Newgate Prison -- it was new then -- but public sentiment moves the courts to determine that Mary has been punished enough and she is released.

The rest of her life is spent quietly and she passes into history without any more notice. The only reason we know her story or even have any interest in the story of Mary Brand is because she was "The Girl from Botany Bay".