The Transport; With All Thy Faults I Love Thee Still
An early lithograph depicting a tearful young woman standing at the sea shore as her young man is forced in to a small rowboat waiting to take him to a sailing ship and transport him to Australia.
The line of verse below the title, With All Thy Faults I Love Thee Still is derived from William Cowper’s poem from The Task, Book II: The Time-Piece. The lines are evocative of the emotions played out time after time as spouses and lovers were separated by the harsh strictures of transportation to New South Wales.
Many transportees never returned to England and often took a new lover in Australia, often within days of arriving in the colony, if not even on the ship during the outward voyage.