In 1789, more than 200 female thieves, prostitutes and con-artists rounded up from London's most notorious prisons were shipped off to an Australian penal colony aboard a leaky vessel named the Lady Juliana. For the English government, the convicts served two purposes: to prevent the starving and isolated male colonists from engaging in "gross irregularities" and to act as breeding stock for the troubled outpost. But once aboard, the wily women turned their banishment into opportunity, transforming their ship into a rowdy floating brothel. By the time they reached Botany Bay, they were fit, healthy and some had even amassed enough money to support themselves. Instead of a life of servitude, they took control and - along with their offspring - helped guarantee a new world's future. With dramatic reconstructions, powerful imagery and actual ship journals, "Voyage of the Courtesans" brings to light the true story of the Lady Juliana. Through intensive research and the use of long-hidden historical records, the film also tracks down the women's modern-day descendants and watches as they uncover the surprising truth about their ancestors. SECRETS OF THE DEAD "Voyage of the Courtesans" airs on PBS Wednesday, November 23, 2005. Check local listings. Intertwining a current investigation with the actual details of the fateful voyage of the Lady Juliana, SECRETS OF THE DEAD recounts a thoroughly modern tale of three 21st-century Australian women who discover a startling story: each of their great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers had been a convict in Georgian England and was sent to Australia on the same ship. Helen Phillips - a senior Anglican minister for the diocese of Tasmania - is a descendant of Rachel Hoddy, a prostitute. Delia Dray - a sheep farmer and senior government horticulturist - traces her lineage to Ann Marsh, who was convicted of stealing a bushel of wheat. Meagen Benson - a well-to-do bank communications manager and yoga teacher - descends from destitute street urchin Mary Wade, who was sentenced for stealing a child's petticoat in a public place. How did Rachel Hoddy, Ann Marsh and Mary Wade find themselves on a convict ship banished to the ends of the earth? As their descendents discover, with the help of historians and researchers, their journey came about at the hands of a mad king and a desperate lord. With America ceded to the revolutionaries, Britain had lost not only a colony, but also a crucial dumping ground for English convicts. In the 1780s, England's own jails were filled to overflowing because of "Mad" King George III's so-called "Bloody Code," which imposed severe penalties - including death or the more preferable "transportation to lands beyond the seas" - for even minor offenses. British Home Secretary Lord Sydney decided he could help alleviate overcrowding and provide much needed "breeding stock" for Australia's fledgling Botany Bay colony by filling the Lady Juliana with Britain's female convicts. "Voyage of the Courtesans" follows the modern-day women as they return to the scenes of their ancestors' crimes in London and discover their warts-and-all origins. Until SECRETS OF THE DEAD uncovered the full story of their forebears, the three women had no idea how intrinsically linked they were to Australia's colorful colonial past or how many details of their ancestors' lives had survived. SECRETS OF THE DEAD is able to provide a genuine re-creation of the convicts' eventful voyage through detailed records and excerpts from a diary written by ship steward John Nicol. In one entry, he described the moment he fell in love with 19-year-old Sarah Whitelam, convicted of stealing a cloak: "I first fixed my fancy on her the moment I knocked the rivet from her irons upon my anvil." After courting Whitelam for a week, Nicol took her as his wife for the duration of the voyage, a common practice among the sailors. In another account, he explains how several of the women plied their trade: "We did not restrain the people on shore from coming on board through the day. The captains and seamen who were in port at the time paid as many visits." Ultimately, the convicts' spirit and persistence served as their passport to success. Many of them became the true -albeit unacknowledged - founding mothers of Australia. One helped her husband start Sydney's first theological college. Another became Australia's first great woman entrepreneur. Mary Wade, who was 11 when she was shipped to Sydney, became Australia's greatest matriarch. By the time she died, her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren numbered more than 300.
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