Hear how Siân Rees researched her book The Floating Brothel and lent her knowledge of the women aboard the Lady Junilana to Secrets of the Dead.

Three women researching their geneology back to the Lady Juliana found that with just a name and a date, it was possible for them to trace the astounding details of the lives of their forebears.

Find out why 225 female thieves, prostitutes, con artists, and some five infants were rounded up from prisons in London and the English countryside to be shipped off to the failing Sydney Cove colony aboard the Lady Juliana.

In 1789, more than 200 female thieves, prostitutes, and con artists were shipped off to an Australian penal colony aboard the Lady Juliana. Onboard, The wily women turned their banishment into opportunity and helped guarantee a new world’s future.