Beyond the Seas

In 18th century Isle of Man eleven-year-old Alice Moore, was seemingly abandoned by her mother, then thrown, penniless, into the street by the landlord and left fend for herself. In her struggle to survive, she slept wherever she could find a bit of shelter and had to steal most of her food. Alice became an expert at evading capture, but at times she did not escape and on several occasions was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in Castletown gaol. Eventually, she was caught trying to steal a loaf of bread and was sentenced to be sent to 'a part beyond the seas' for a term of seven years. After several months in the dreaded Newgate Gaol, she was dispatched, with the second fleet on a vessel - the Lady Juliana - which carried only female convicts, about half of whom were prostiutes. At all the ports they called at the 'ladies of the night' plied their trade to raise a nest egg for when they arrived in their new land, and earned the ship the nickname - The Floating Brothel. A day short of a year after leaving Galleons Reach in London, and after a horrendous voyage Alice found herself in Port Jackson, in Australia, which was not the town she had expected, but just a scruffy scattering of tents and wooden huts. An even more horrifying event unfolded, when a few days after her arrival, the rest of the notorious second fleet arrived. Once again, she had to find a way to survive.