Scaysbrook in Epub

 I have been playing with the idea of an Epub book, or electronic book, and thought that the Scaysbrook web site and all that's in it, might be a suitable trial. So I have started to copy off of the site into an Apple Pages document ready to export to an Epub document.

The benefits are that I can read the book on my iPhone without having to link to a web page, great for travelling.

Also I want to start adding new items, on the very early days of out name, the Sacrsbrtooks, Sacrisbroooks and Sacribricks. Plus the link to the USA is well worth a bit of research, I already have links conformed to my mother.

Next comes the tree itself, Its huge and I want to make it easier to read, so I am experimenting with splitting it into continents, the European, Australasia and finally the USA.

So the Epub book will be free, and available to download via the Website and from the Scaysbrook site on Facebook.

The Convict Ships

 When I started to research the Scaysbrook name, Michael Scaysbrook came to bear, but I wanted to know a little of the background to his transportation, and I was lucky enough to find a book that described life as a transported fellow from the UK. The new books I have added to the Biblio help understand the top and life on board.

On average the trip to Sydney lasted from about 141days through to about 170 days, ships often sailed via the coast of Africa, round the Horn and sail the Southern ocean, taking roughly 160 days on average, by comparison the clippers could do it in 74 days.

Life on board would be tough, bad food, and any misdemeanour or wrong doing however trivial would result in many lashes from the Captain. Death was common and not all the convicts were expected to survive the trip.

women were transported separately from men, the subject of Sian Rees's excellent book the Floating Brothel

Most if not all the voyages are well recorded, the excellent book "The Convict Ship" by Charles Bateson gives a graphic encounter of many of the passages and how captains and ships surgeons often flouted the law. Batesons book not only tells the story but also loses the boats and crew for each voyage.