Experiencing Transit

In the 19th century, all British migrants to Australia shared a unique time on the high seas, where seasickness, storms and interpersonal conflicts contributed to the lived and felt reality, as did concerts, sunsets and friendships. The passengers had to navigate closeness and separation, boredom and excitement, life and death. Structures of power, responsibility and authority were omnipresent, fragile and contested. This experience is reflected on and documented in diaries, letters, guidebooks, political papers, newspaper articles, and ship surgeons' journals. This book explores case studies from about 110 sailing vessels and steamships on their way from the United Kingdom to the eastern Australian colonies between 1848 and 1898. Taking this as an exemplary laboratory setting for experiencing transit, it aims to enrich the concept of transit with emotional, experiential, social, and mental aspects - perspectives that have received too little attention in historical research so far.