Gilding the Lily

The log of HMS brig Lily at first seems straightforward. Spanning January to May 1855, its concise entries outline a voyage from Melbourne to Spithead, a Royal Navy base on the south English coast. Punctuating the navigational and meteorological data are accounts of close encounters with massive icebergs, plus remarks about calling at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

But the gold intrigues me. Taken aboard on 20 January, there was a lot of it: an estimated 11,000 ounces, or 312 kilograms, valued at L40,000. Barely a week after docked, for instance, the theft of L12,000 worth of bullion and coins from a train leaving London was infamously dubbed the ‘Great Gold Robbery’. This was hold.