>>>Cheers Barry - concerning your......'Can you tell me what you're refering to as the "orlop deck" in the line "the sleeping shelves of the orlop deck" & what are the sleeping shelves?'.........
There are so many variations of definition - here's a few...

In a ship with four or more decks: the lowest deck, forming a covering for the hold.
Etymology: 15c: from Dutch overloop covering, from overloopen to run or spill over.

The orlop deck is the lowest deck in a ship. It is the deck or part of a deck where the cables are stowed, usually below the water line. It has been suggested the name originates from "overlooping" of the cables.
It has also been suggested that the name is a corruption of "overlap," referring to an overlapping, balcony-like half deck occupying a portion of the ship's lowest deck space.

Orlop deck, the deck or part of a deck where the cables are
stowed, usually below the water line.

Orlop deck.
The lowest deck of a ship, lying on the beams of the hold and named from the Dutch word for "overlap" because it overlaps the hold. The ship's cables and supplies were stored on the orlop deck, and the purser and carpenter often had offices here, near their supplies. Below the waterline, this was also the site of the powder magazine, and sometimes the stuffy quarters for gunners,
boatswains, carpenters, and midshipmen. Originally, the orlop deck was the single floor or deck covering the hold of a ship; with the additions of decks above, the orlop became the lowest deck of a ship of the line and was not usually called a "deck." When a ship had two complete levels these were called orlop and deck; when three floors, they were orlop, lower, and upper deck; when four floors, orlop, lower, middle, and upper deck.
(quoted from A Sea of Words)

>>>The shelves were just that - wooden shelves with thin straw mattresses. er, sadly in our chequered history (slave trade), such shelves would be well crammed and without mattresses - but by all accounts, the women on board the Julian never had such good conditions! The fresh air and washing facilities allowed - the regular meals... all far better than the poverty which got em put in the rather nasty prison conditions of the day! Get the book - it's a fine read!

I'd love to hear the music.

>>>email me via m'website - see above - I'll email you an mp3 of the track - y'never know - if ya like it, ya may wanna invest in an album! (wotta-cheek!) - but that wasnae why I posted here - honest!

Anyway thanks for the input here, very interesting.

>>>that's what I hoped! - Cheers - Duncan