Most emigrants sailing to Australia in the 19th century travelled in steerage class accommodation. Many kept diaries during what was usually a long and tedious voyage of about three months, recording what they ate, how they were treated by the captain and the doctor, and the social friction of life in their floating home. They were not the private, reflective diaries of today, but were more like letters, and it was common practice to write up the diary and post it back by the first mail home.