Shipwrecks: images and perceptions of nineteenth century maritime disasters

"In the nineteenth century the long sea voyage across thousands of miles of open ocean to Australia was a step into the unknown. International migration at the time usually involved travel by sea, as it had in previous centuries. Ships were the primary long distance transportation method and the movement of passengers was one of their most important functions. In the popular imagination the ocean represented hazard and uncertainty - an alien environment in which the possibility of shipwreck loomed large. Passengers felt themselves to be at the mercy of the elements and being directly exposed to the extremes of the weather in a moving structure was a new and disconcerting experience."