Death Ships - Book Release Date 16 July

The final step of indexing has been finalised and my latest book (Death Ships) is ready to go. The publisher (Shawline Publishing Group) has announced the release date will be July 16.

The cover design looks great and the 51 illustrations enhance the book and add life to the rather dramatic story.

The discovery of gold in Australia (1851) had an enormous impact locally and in Britain. This story looks at one of the consequences of the rush to the goldfields - the urgent need for replacement labour in the colonies. More emigrants were needed and ships were required as transport. Six big North American built ships were located as transport but complications occurred because Liverpool was the point of embarkation. Liverpool was in the middle of the nineteenth century unfortunately a very unhealthy place. The endemic and epidemic diseases of Victorian England were lurking in Liverpool. Although the selected ships were new, big and fast the emigrants were transported in large numbers and crammed together beneath the main deck for the long voyage to the colonies. Almost 500 emigrants embarked in 1852 in the six ships but unfortunately large numbers did not reach their destination. Hence this book tells the story of life and death on the six big emigrant ships (Wanata, Shackamaxon. Beejapore, Marco Polo, Ticonderoga and Bourneuf).