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STRANGERS TO THE SEA 2

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THE  ACCOMMODATION      "When the stress of farewells was over the emigrants gradually became aware of their surroundings ― of the billowing sails; the purposeful, agile crew, so unmoved by the departure; the cramped accommodation. The accommodation above all. Between bouts of seasickness it dawned on them that these few square feet of space were to be their home for months of travel, a home that would seldom be still.       Products of their time as they were, it probably did not surprise the emigrants that life on board ship mirrored the class structure of Britain. The masses below deck represented the masses at home." (Don Charlwood, 1999, The Long Farewell , AD Reid, Kialla Vic, p.91) 5.  Excerpts from Henry Mundy's Diary, England to Australia, Abberton , 1844 The Diary was written between 1909 and 1912, a lifetime after 13 yo emigrant Henry Mundy crossed oceans in steerage to reach Port Phillip in 1844. He writes, "I am now in my eightieth ye...
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STRANGERS TO THE SEA

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  Letters Selected From Ordinary Emigrants :  Steerage Passengers To Port Phillip   "For nearly a century following the first settlement of Australia, every immigrant, bond or free, had in common an experience none could forget: a passage under sail, lasting anything from two months to six, a passage from the old world to the new. Though nearly all had set out as strangers to the sea , they had crossed the world's most tempestuous oceans by a route not long before sailed by explorers. They had lived during the voyage in a state of limbo, out of touch with everyone but their shipmates, no longer belonging to the old world nor yet to the new. Day by day they had lived under conditions they could scarcely have imagined before their departure. When at last they had landed, they were by no means the same people who had boarded ship months before." (Don Charlwood, 2000 [1981], The Long Farewell , Burgewood Books, Warrandyte Vic., p. 1) Historically there has been something of a...
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