Chapter 7: Liverpool Street

Liverpool Street continues the story of Ludlow Tedder and her daughter Arabella, and the journey they embark upon as convicts to Van Dieman’s Land aboard the Hindostan. Once again the Tin Ticket enters the story, with Ludlow Tedder being assigned #151. Ludlow’s journey to Australia is softened somewhat for her and her daughter by being appointed the nurse aboard the Hindostan.

Woven into the account of Ludlow Tedder’s journey to Van Dieman’s Land are fascinating insights to what transportation meant to countless others, with snippets of information concerning other female convicts who were forced from the land of their birth to a country on the other side of the world. There is of course the description of Ludlow Tedder’s own experience aboard the Hindostan as well, with what she and her daughter endured during the crossing of the world’s oceans.

Upon arrival in Van Dieman’s Land, the accounts of other female convicts and their experiences of convict life continue to be interwoven into that of Ludlow Tedder’s experience, providing a much richer understanding of what being a female convict in Van Dieman’s Land during 1839 really meant. The horrific conditions endured by convicts at Cascades and by children who were housed at the Queen’s Orphanage, separated from their mothers who were only allowed a single monthly visit, were truly shocking. Conditions were atrocious at both facilities by the modern standards of today, but apparently were far better than those experienced in the slums of Britain. They were most certainly not easy times.

The chapter concludes with Ludlow Tedder serving as a nurse at the Liverpool Street Nursery and with her coming into contact with another of the books main characters, Janet Houston. Janet re-enters the narrative with a newly born son, William.

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