Yes, done that! Actually, I thought it wasn't
quite as good as some of the previous ones, although still very good though!
<brag> Lee Child and I went to the same school.
I've now just finished "The Long Farewell" by Don Charlwood (Penguin Australia 1981) which I picked up for a couple of quid in a decond hand bookshop. It tells the stories of the voyages of the emigrant families from the UK and Ireland to Australia in the mid-nineteenth centrury, relying extensively on and quoting from many of the surviving diaries of the voyagers back in those days. The book's in two parts, first dealing with the background of the emigrants, their reasons for leaving, the preparations for departure, the ships and captains, and the routes, passages and landfalls. The second part is detailed daily extracts from three such diaries, John Fenwick (1854), Fanny Davis (1858) and Dr H. M. Lightoller (1878).
Fascinating book and memorable characters, not least James Nichol "Bully" Forbes, Master of the "Lightning" and then the "Schomberg". Trying to make a record passage of 60 days, the latter ship ran aground on a sandspit in South Australia on Boxing Day 1855, but thankfully all crew and passengers were saved. But Forbes never got a first-class command again.