A New York Times Bestseller A Publishers Weekly BestsellerRichard Morgan is a devoted husband, loving father, and a sober and hardworking craftsman. By the machinations of fate and the vagaries of the 18th-century English judicial system, he is consigned as a convict to the famous First Fleet, which set sail in May of 1787 for the newly discovered continent of Australia -- bearing, as an experiment in penology, 582 male and 193 female felons sentenced to transportation. Only epic can describe one of the most grueling and significant voyages in human history, and a stunning work that is at once rich entertainment and a revelation. This is an illustrated book.