Great News - New Book Coming Soon

I have just signed a contract with Shawine Publishing Group to publish my book Death Ships.

Production could take a few months but hopefully it will be available in bookshops (and directly from me) in the first part of the new year.

The book features six very large clipper style ships constructed in North America (four in Canada and two in the US). They were constructed to carry large amounts of cargo between North America and Britain but gold was discovered in Victoria and they were diverted to become emigrant vessels on the Australia run.

The use of these ships is complicated by the many diseases of Victorian England, the use of Liverpool as the point of embarkation, the selection of emigrants from depressed rural parts of Scotland, Ireland and England who had little natural immunity to city diseases and the need to get large numbers of emigrants to the colonies as fast as possible. Each of these matters are carefully examined in the book together with the story about each of the six ships.

Assisted passage to the Australian colonies was provided from about 1830. Most of those who embarked in the first part of the century arrived safely even if the passage had been uncomfortable and at times frightening. However the passage on theses six ships was very different. The story about the passage and arrival of each ship is told in this book. There are over 50 illustrations in the book.

Let me know if you would like to reserve a copy (info@douglimbrick.com).

This is one of the wonderful illustrations in the book relating to the discussion about diseases of the Victorian era and the state of medical knowledge. Even though an inoculation against small pox had been developed there was some hysteria created by rumours that it would lead to inoculated people having bovine features.