http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/category/episodes/
Voyage of the Courtesans
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/episode ... esans/159/
Pretty interesting.In 1789, more than 200 female thieves, prostitutes, and con artists were rounded up from London’s most notorious prisons and shipped off to an Australian penal colony aboard a leaky vessel named the Lady Juliana. For the English government, the convicts had two uses: to prevent the starving and isolated male colonists from engaging in “gross irregularities,” and to act as breeding stock for the troubled outpost. But once aboard, the wily women turned their banishment into opportunity, transforming their ship into a rowdy floating brothel.
By the time they reached Sydney Cove, they were fit and healthy, and some had even amassed enough money to support themselves. Instead of an assured life of servitude, they took control, and — along with their offspring — helped guarantee a new world’s future.