Voyage to Australia

Auction announced:

A hair-raising tale of drunken debauchery among officers and passengers on a ship taking them to settle in Australia in the 1830s has been revealed in a journal to be auctioned this month.

The detailed account kept by James Bell, a junior officer on "Planter", reveals the ship's captain shared his bed with two daughters of a preacher and that a gang of prostitutes also made the voyage.

The ship sailed from Deptford in London on November 25, 1838 and reached Adelaide on May 16, 1839.

The 225-page volume, which was bought for a few pounds at a book stall, is expected to fetch up to 4,000 pounds when it is auctioned at Bonhams in London on March 23.

Sounds interesting.