Book review - The Fatal Shore
The history book The Fatal Shore: A history of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia 1787-1868 by Robert Hughes was published in 1986 to widespread acclaim. The title ‘Fatal Shore’ was used in convict ballads. Certainly, transportation proved fatal for many convicts (p368). In Chapter 2 Hughes provides a fascinating history lesson of the times. In the cities and towns of Georgian England lives of the mass of the populace were short, and gin helped ameliorate conditions. By 1751 it was said there was ‘one gin-shop for every 120 citizens’ (p24). Crime was rife; death penalties were often commuted to transportation. ‘By 1837, hanging was mainly restricted to cases of murder, while forgery, cattle-theft, house-breaking was relegated to the less terrible... “transportable” offence’ (p160). Until the American War of Independence, many criminals were transported to the American continent. Afterwards, however, that prospect was closed. Captain Cook discovered what he termed ...