Stag Diary - Passage to Colonial Adelaide 1850

British history, particularly British Imperial history, includes the movement of people from Britain to other parts of the world. For many this was a move as emigrants seeking a new life in another country. From about 1830 there was considerable interest in emigration to the Australian colonies, supported for the first time by various British government and colonial programs of assisted passage. The passage to the Australian colonies involved travelling half way around the world. For over ninety percent of emigrants this necessitated passage in a small wooden square-rigged sailing vessel beneath the deck as steerage class passengers, where conditions were rudimentary, crowded, noisy, smelly, damp and lacked privacy. This book tells the story of a passage by some 260 emigrants to colonial South Australia in 1850 on board a square-rigged vessel called the Stag. It incorporates the transcribed diary of one of the steerage class passengers Francis C Taylor and gives a vivid insight into shipboard life on the long and difficult passage.