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2010-02-26 11:14:56
LONDON (Reuters) Violence, drunkenness and all manner of debauchery featured
on a six-month voyage on a migrant ship bound for Australia 170 years ago, a
newly discovered diary reveals.
The raunchy tale of anarchy on the high seas is recorded by a junior officer,
James Bell, aboard "The Planter" which sailed to Adelaide from Deptford in east
London in 1838.
Alcohol-fueled acts of "great violence" involving officers, mates and even the
ship's doctor are all recounted.
In the green vellum-bound journal, Bell tells how the captain regularly
entertained two of the 11 daughters of a doctor-preacher from Liverpool called
McGowan.
He wrote: "our captain of course could not want a mistress till he returned to
his own in England, but made love to two of McGowan's daughters ... The Capt
was allowed to keep the daughters company at all hours, and during the whole
time of our being in warm weather our bed on deck sufficed for all three."
Bell, whose 225-page diary goes up for sale at auction in London next month
after being bought in a market stall for a pittance, said his crew were no
better.
"Such an example was soon followed up by all the ship's company but
particularly by the three mates (who) carried immorality to a glaring height."
Bell told how they blatantly took up with a band of prostitutes in search of a
better life in the colonies.
He called the women "... natives of some obscene alley, in some obscene street,
of that renowned city, London, and who are conveying in themselves all the
filth of the place of their nativity, to Adelaide."
Ironically, Bell kept his diary for a female friend back in England, but
interestingly for the time spared her few blushes.
"With all this whoring and drunkenness," he wrote, "it is amazing this ship
ever arrived in Australia."
The diary is expected to fetch between 2,000 to 4,000 pounds ($3,000 to $6,000)
at a sale on March 23, according to the auction house Bonhams.
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Steve Addison)