lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Australian maritime history

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83987 Andrews, Graeme The Ferries of Sydney - signed by the author A.H & A.W. Reed Books, Terrey Hills, NSW, Australia, 1975. First edition: landscape octavo; hardcover, with endpaper maps; 128pp., with many monochrome and some full-colour illustrations. Signed in ink on the front free endpaper; boards faded along the edges; text block edges lightly tone and top edge spotted. Minor edgewear to the dustwrapper. Very good to near fine. The romance of Sydney's ferries is part of the story of Sydney. From the beginning, the ferries that ply the harbour and the surrounding waters have been identified with the life of the city. Graeme Andrews tells their story from the early days to the present. Click here to order $35

207219 Bastian, Josephine 'A passion for exploring new countries' Matthew Flinders & George Bass Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty. Ltd., North Melbourne Vic., 2016. Octavo; paperback; 301pp., with 10pp. of colour and monochrome plates. Minor wear. Near fine. Click here to order $25

87804 Baty, Scott Ships that Passed The Glorious Era of Travel to Australia and New Zealand Reed Books Pty. Ltd., French's Forest NSW, 1984. First edition. Quarto; hardcover, with upper board title and decorated endpapers; 328pp. with many monochrome photographic illustrations. Slightly rolled; mild edgewear to the boards; text block edges spotted. Dustwrapper is mildly rubbed and sunned along the spine panel and top edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. This book is a salute to six decades of international passenger shipping services in Australasian waters. Between 1920 and 1984 some 200 liners and regional cruise ships were to pass regularly through Australia and New Zealand on scheduled service. Each ship has its own special story and is told within this book. Click here to order $30

81805 Bloomfield, Noelene Almost a French Australia French-British Rivalry in the Southern Oceans Halstead Press, Braddon, ACT, Australia, 2012. Quarto; hardcover; with illustrated boards and endpapers; 190pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Near fine in like dustwrapper. Most people assume that Captain James Cook set out to explore the world, discovered Australia and that was that. It couldn't be further from the truth. At the time, England was in a contest with France to claim territory hitherto unknown to the European powers. Initially, Cook was not even a captain - his low rank was a ruse to prevent the French from thinking that he was up to anything of substance. With a cover story that he was merely setting forth to observe the transit of Venus from better viewing locales below the Equator, he managed to steal a march on French efforts to expand their dominion in the antipodes. In actual fact, the British were the first to claim Australia by the merest margin and the French were left to dream only of what might have been and to see their plans for "Terre Napoleon" turn to ashes. In this work, Noelene Bloomfield covers all the aspects of this important race to the South and reveals what might have been if time and tide had better favoured the French. Click here to order $30

12222 Bromby, Robin German Raiders of the South Seas The Naval Threat to Australia/New Zealand 1914-17 Doubleday Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney NSW, 1985. First edition: quarto; hardcover; 208pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; cocked; spine heel softened; light spotting to the text block top edge. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. In the first days of World War I a German light cruiser detached itself from the East Asiatic Squadron with the mission to raid and harass Allied shipping. The ship, "SMS Emden", not only became world famous in its two months of raiding, during which it sank sixteen ships and captured others, but demonstrated to a cunning enemy the vulnerability of Australian, New Zealand and Empire shipping links. The two dominions were left with little naval protection as Britain gathered its ships to fight the Germans in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Then in 1916, came another raider, the "Wolf", which, undetected and unmolested, laid mines around Australia and New Zealand and preyed upon merchant ships sailing in the Tasman Sea and South Pacific. The following year the Germans made an abortive attempt to send a sailing ship to raid the South Seas, which ended when the "Seeadler" was wrecked on a small atoll. With over eighty black and white photographs, many of them previously unpublished, and detailed maps of the routes of the major ships, "German Raiders" makes fascinating reading and is an important addition to the naval history of Australia and New Zealand. Click here to order $30

208580 Cannon, Michael Perilous Voyages to the New Land - revised, expanded edition Experiences of Australian Pioneer Families on the High Seas Today's Australia Publishing Company, Mornington Vic., 1997. Reprint: quarto; hardcover, with upper board titles and decorative endpapers; 272pp., with many monochrome illustrations and 8pp. of colour plates. Moderate wear; a little shaken and rolled; spine extremities softened; some minor spotting to the text block edges. Dustwrapper is lightly edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Accounts of immigrant ships to Australia 1840-1850 that reveal often harrowing conditions and experiences, with storms, rickets, disease, irresponsible captains and wild passengers. Chapters also discuss Irish orphan immigration and attempts at reform. With contemporary illustrations, five documentary appendixes, bibliography and index. Click here to order $90

89132 Carlton, Mike Cruiser - signed copy The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew William Heinemann Ltd., North Sydney NSW, 2010. Signed hardcover, octavo; red boards with black spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 706pp., monochrome and colour plates, appendices, references, bibliography, index. Minor wear; lower board edges and corners slightly worn; toned text block edges. Otherwise near fine in like dustwrappers and covered in protective film with white paper backing. Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navy's finest fighting sailor, 'Hardover' Hec Waller. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. 'Cruiser', by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story. And the story of those who loved them and waited for them. Click here to order $40

31301 Cottee, Kay First Lady - signed A history-making solo voyage around the world Pan Books (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Chippendale NSW, 1990. Octavo; paperback; 226pp., with maps, diagrams and 24pp. of full-colour and monochrome plates. Mild wear; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn; spine lightly sunned and creased; some minor spotting to the text block edges; signed in ink to the title page. Very good. Click here to order $25

205251 David, Andrew The Voyage of HMS Herald To Australia and the South-west Pacific 1852-1861 under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham Miegunyah Press, Melbourne Vic., 1995. First edition. Royal octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling and a brown ribbon marker; 521pp., with maps, monochrome illustrations and 22pp. of monochrome and colour plates. Minor wear; a few scattered spots on the text block edges. Rubbing to the dustwrapper and light wear to edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. The voyage of HMS Herald, under the command of Henry Mangles Denham, encompassed much of the South-west Pacific and substantial parts of the Australian coast. From 1852 to 1861, the Herald surveyed and charted known land masses and suspected hazards, thereby establishing safe routes for shipping. That some of these charts are still in use is testimony to the accuracy and skill of those who created them. Commander David makes extensive use of the journals of Denham and his officers to describe mid-nineteenth-century techniques of surveying and charting, often undertaken in hazardous conditions. His book also provides an unusual and often entertaining view of the difficulties experienced in field work. The collection of natural history specimens, another part of the Herald's task, resulted in significant additions to British collections. Botanical ornithological discoveries are described using current nomenclature, and the habits of some species now threatened or extinct are examined through the journals of the Ship's scientists. The South-west Pacific at the time of Denham's voyages was simultaneously a mission field, a site of commercial activity, and a colonial outpost. The accounts of the Herald's contact with native peoples are enriched by detailed descriptions of cultural practices, and give an insight into the complex and often uneasy relationships between colonial officials, missionaries and natives. Almost a decade's voyaging brought the ship and her crew to remote and inhospitable locations, threatened them with storms, disease, hunger and illness, and separated them from home and families. It also earned for them a lasting place in the history of maritime surveying. Click here to order $50

42420 Dunmore, John Where Fate Beckons The Life of Jean-Francois de La Perouse ABC Books, Sydney NSW, 2006. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 292pp., with maps and 12pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear only; some faint spotting to the text block edges. Near fine in like dustwrapper (now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive film). The mystery of the disappearance of Jean Francois de La Perouse in 1788 during his long voyage of discovery in the Pacific was solved 40 years later, yet it still fascinates people and expeditions continue to search for his body and the remains of his ships. Click here to order $30

32619 Durrant, Lawrence The Seawatchers: The Story of Australia's Coast Radio Service Angus & Robertson, 1986. Hardcover; small quarto; blue boards with white spine titling, blue endpapers; 248pp., numerous monochrome illustrations. Rubbing and wear to board edges and corners; a few faint spots on text block edges; rubbed dustwrapper with a few small scrapes and wear to edges. Otherwise very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

58178 Estensen, Miriam The Life of George Bass Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment. Allen & Unwin, Sydney NSW, 2005. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with bronze spine-titling; 259pp., with maps and 8 pages of full-colour and monochrome plates. Minor wear. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine panel. Near fine. The brilliant and charismatic Bass embodied the Age of Enlightenment. He was a man of intense intellectual curiosity, of wide-ranging talents and contradictions as well. He had friends among Sydney's political 'radicals' but was also of the establishment. He was a skilled surgeon who preferred navigation to medicine, a naval officer who put his career on hold in an attempt to make a fortune and a man deeply in love but who abandoned his 'beloved Bess Bass' for the rewards of an adventurous voyage into commerce. A richly detailed account of the life and mysterious disappearance of a gifted and complicated man. Click here to order $25

200032 Flinders, Matthew A Voyage to Terra Australia - Australiana Facsimile Editions, No.37 Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803 in His Majesty's ship "The Investigator" Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide SA, 1966. Two volumes and a solander case of folding charts: folio; hardcover, buckram boards with gilt spine titles on burgundy labels; 1,115pp. [1-4; i-ix; 1-10; i-cciv; 1-269; 1 Blank + 1-4; 1-613; 1 Blank], with 9 monochrome plates, 18 charts and elevations and 10 botanical plates. Moderate wear; boards rubbed with some marks; text block edges toned and top edge dusted; mild scattered foxing, mainly to the preliminaries; maps and plates clean, though mis-folded (now corrected) with some creasing and bruising. Very good. "A Voyage to Terra Australis" is a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders. It describes his circumnavigation of the Australian continent in the early years of the 19th century, and his imprisonment by the French on the island of Mauritius from 1804-1810. The book tells in great detail his explorations and includes maps and drawings of the profiles of unknown coastline areas of what Flinders called "Terra Australis Incognita". By this, he was referring to the great unknown Southern continent that had been sighted and partly mapped by prominent earlier mariners such as Captain James Cook. The ship Flinders commanded, HMS Investigator, was a 334-ton sloop. Up until this time the circumnavigation of Australia - which was necessary to prove it was a single continent land mass - had never been completed. He achieved this by circling the island continent, leaving Sydney in July 1801, heading north, through Torres Strait, across the top of the continent westward, and south along the western coastline. Flinders reached and named Cape Leeuwin on 6 December 1802, and proceeded to make a survey along the southern coast of the Australian mainland, and then completing the journey, arrived back in Sydney in June 1803, despite the dangerous condition of his ship. Flinders' further description of imprisonment on Mauritius preceded his final return to England in October 1810 in poor health: despite this he immediately resumed work preparing "A Voyage to Terra Australis" and his maps for publication. In January 1811 approval for publication of his narrative was given by the Admiralty, but payment was restricted to the atlas and charts sections. Flinders was responsible for funding the major work. The full title of this book which was first published in London in July 1814 was given, as was common at the time, a synoptic description: "A Voyage to Terra Australis: undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island". Original publications of the Atlas to Flinders' "Voyage to Terra Australis" are held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia, as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, 4 plates of views, and 10 plates of Australian flora. Flinders' map of Terra Australis was first published in January 1814 and the remaining maps were published before his atlas and book. On 19 July 1814, the day after the book and atlas were published, Matthew Flinders died, at the age of 40. Click here to order $550

208584 Fowell, Newton (Nance Irvine, ed.) The Sirius Letters - signed The Complete Letters of Newton Fowell Midshipman & Lieutenant aboard the Sirius Flagship of the First Fleet on its Voyage to New South Wales The Fairfax Library, Sydney NSW, 1988. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt upper board and spine titling and decorative endpapers; 176pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly shaken; softening to the spine extremities; a minor bump to the upper board; text block edges very lightly toned; previous owner's large ink inscription to the verso of the flyleaf; signed by the editor to the half-title page. Dustwrapper is rubbed and edgeworn; sunned along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Appendix consists of extracts from the writings of four other voyagers on the First Fleet: James Scott, John Easty, Phillip King and Arthur Bowes-Smyth. Click here to order $50

94476 Frame, T.R. & G.J. Swinden First In, Last Out The Navy at Gallipoli Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1990. First edition. Octavo hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 208pp., monochrome plates and illustrations. Owner's name. Binding very slightly rolled and spotting to upper text block edges. Very good otherwise in like dustwrapper with slight wear to spine panel extremities. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. This study highlights the special involvement of the Royal Australian Navy in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, contrasting the success of the Navy's operations with the failure of the land operations. The coupling of the exploits of the AE 2 (the first Allied submarine successfully to penetrate the Dardanelles) and the Bridging Train (sailors who constructed wharves and shore front facilities to support the arrival of Allied troops and stores) also emphasises the Navy's unique claim to be the first in and the last out of Gallipoli. The book also reflects on the remarkable lives many of the central characters in both stories led after the war as well as their personal recollections of these events. Click here to order $80

78231 Gill, G. Hermon Royal Australian Navy 1942-1945 Australia in the War of 1939-1945 Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 1957. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 686pp., with 44pp. of monochrome plates, 3 colour maps, and various other maps and diagrams. Minor wear; offsetting to endpapers; toned text block edges. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed with wear and chipping to edges; frayed upper corners with small scrape on spine panel upper edge; now professionally protected by archival film with white paper backing. Very good. Set against the political and military policies of the RAN, this work outlines the activities and accomplishments of Australia's naval force during the Second World War. The narrative of the Australian Navy's involvement, alongside the British and American naval forces, covers a broad swathe of oceanic territory from the Pacific and Indian theatres, to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Australia's naval policy upon entering the War is explicitly detailed here and the records of the ships and men who followed the dictums of that policy are more than adequately vindicated by the victory with which the volume concludes. Click here to order $85

63224 Gordon, Malcolm From Chusan to Sea Princess The Australian Services of the P&O and Orient Lines George Allen & Unwin (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., North Sydney NSW, 1985. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and illustrated endpapers; 184pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; spine extremities worn and board bottom edges scraped text block edges spotted and top edge dusted; mild offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed and edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

92710 Jeremy, John Cockatoo Island Sydney's Historic Dockyard UNSW Press/University of NSW Press Ltd., Sydney NSW, 2005. Octavo; paperback; 263pp., with a map and many monochrome illustrations. Very minor wear; spine lightly sunned; previous owner's pencilled inscription to the first page. Very good. Click here to order $30

97669 Kenihan, G.H. (ed.) The Journal of Abel Jansz Tasman 1642 With Documents Relating to His Exploration of Australia in 1644 Australian Heritage Press, Adelaide, nd. Limited edition of 500 copies; quarto hardcover; dark red pebbled boards with gilt spine titling; cream endpapers; 119pp., monochrome illustrations. Inscription. Toned text block edges. Red dustwrapper with ragged chipping along upper edge and small missing segment on lower front edge, tear on lower rear panel. Very good to near fine in good dustwrapper now protected in archival film with white paper backing. Click here to order $75

33734 Kerr, Margaret & Colin Australia's Early Whalemen Rigby Publishers Ltd., Adelaide, SA, Australia, 1980. Small quarto; hardcover; 64pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Text block edges lightly toned and spotted; mild edgewear to boards. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Very good. Australia's early whalemen battled turbulent seas, shipwrecks, hunger and disease in their ruthless search for whales. At the mercy of the whale's fury boats were capsized and men drowned. Killer whales darting through the water at thirty knots, frequently towed away boats full of men never to be heard of again. Whaling became a major industry in Australia and Tasmania. Bay whaling stations were set up on many parts of the southern Australian coast and islands. Click here to order $18

10739 Lawson, Will Pacific Steamers The History, Rise, and Development of Steamers on the Australian, New Zealand, and Western American Coasts Brown Son and Ferguson, Glasgow Scotland UK, 1927. First edition. Octavo, hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titles; 244pp., with a half-tone frontispiece and many plates likewise. Slightly rolled; very mild softening of the spine extremities; spotting and dusting of the text block edges; offset to the endpapers; retailer's bookplate to the front pastedown; spine cracked. Lacks dustwrapper. Good. This is the story of the early endeavours of steamships in the Pacific when there were few docks or repair shops, when most ships were their own foundry; the many wrecks a testimony to this. The early pioneers were not hampered however, by these considerations. The spirit of adventure and enterprise pervaded the development of the engines - where rivalry and competition frequently spurred on the officers to take risks and make innovations to the ships. Illustrations from photographs and paintings add to the gripping quality of the book as well as its historic value. Click here to order $60

208603 Lind, Lew Fair Winds to Australia 200 Years of Sail on the Australia Station (Including the Tall Ships in Australia) Reed Books Pty. Ltd., French's Forest NSW, 1988. Quarto; hardcover, with upper board titles and illustrated endpapers; 208pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; lightly shaken and rolled; some mild marks to the text block edges; previous owner's ink inscription to the half-title page. Dustwrapper is well-rubbed and edgeworn with some minor tears and associated creasing; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $27

208453 Lubbock, Basil The Colonial Clippers Brown, Son & Ferguson, Glasgow, 1975. Reprint: quarto; hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine and upper board blind-stamped titling; 384pp., with a monochrome photolithographic frontispiece, and 29pp. of plates likewise, with 3pp. of diagrams. Rubbing to board edges and corners; softening to the spine extremities, bumping to the lower corners. Price-clipped dustwrapper is well-rubbed with some chipping; a tape mark to the upper panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive film. Very good. "To sail and the sail-trained seaman more than to any other cause do we our nation's greatness. By sail were our homesteads kept safe from the enemy; by sail were our coasts charted; sail took adventurous pioneers to the new land, and sail brought home the products of these new lands to the Old Country and made her the Market of the World. This book is an attempt to preserve in written form what the fading memory is fast forgetting - the Glorious History of the Sailing Ship." - Basil Lubbock. Click here to order $65

33520 Marchant, Leslie R. France Australe A study of French explorations and attempts to found a penal colony and strategic base in south western Australia, 1503-1826 Artlook Books, Perth WA, 1982. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 384pp., with monochrome plates. Mild wear; binding slightly rolled; mild spotting to text block top edge. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Based on previously unused naval and other archival records in France, "France Australe" tells the fascinating story of the French explorations of the southern landmass and of plans to colonize Western Australia, in the pre-British period from 1503-1826. Click here to order $50

71917 Mearns, David L. The Search for the Sydney How Australia's Greatest Maritime Mystery was Solved HarperCollins Publishers Pty. Ltd., Pymble NSW, 2009. Quarto; hardcover, full cloth with silver-gilt spine-titling and upper board decoration and decorative endpapers; 264pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations and folding schematics. Moderate wear: cocked; spine extremities softened; scraping on board edges and corners; mild offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper with ship schematics printed on the verso; minor scuffing; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Beginning in 2002, David Mearns began an exhaustive investigation into the story and the fate of the HMAS Sydney, sunk by the German ship Kormoran off the Western Australian coast in 1941. Controversy has always hung over the sinking and the loss of both ships and until Mearns located the two wrecks in 2008 the story could not be laid to rest. In this sumptuous volume, Mearns takes us on a complete journey of exploration and discovery, detailing the expeditions and research that led to the final solving of this elusive mystery. Click here to order $35

94982 Milligan, Christopher S., & John C.H. Foley (Foreword by Geoffrey Blainey) Australian Hospital Ship Centaur - signed by the authors The Myth of Immunity Nairana Publications, Hendra Qld., 1993. Octavo; hardcover, with illustrated boards; 340pp., with a full-colour frontispiece, maps and diagrams, and 30pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; signed in ink on the title page. Near fine. Click here to order $45

94738 Monteath, Peter (ed.) Sailing with Flinders The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith Corkwood Press, North Adelaide SA, 2002. Octavo; gatefold paperback; 86pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Near fine. Click here to order $20

94182 Montgomerie, H.S. William Bligh of the "Bounty" in Fact and in Fable Williams and Norgate, London, 1937. First edition: hardcover, octavo; blue cloth boards with red spine titling; 308pp., monochrome plates and illustrations with fold-out illustrations and maps. Owner's name. Minor wear; foxing to prelims and title page with scattered spotting thereafter; browned and spotted text block edges. Very good. Lacks dustwrapper. Click here to order $35

205075 Mundle, Rob Under Full Sail How the majestic clipper ships transformed Australia from a convict outpost to a nation ABC Books/HarperCollins Publishers Aust. Pty. Ltd., Sydney NSW, 2016. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine tiling; 374pp., with 16pp. of monochrome and colour plates. Minor wear; board edges and spine extremities scraped; lightly toned text block edges. Dustwrapper mild rubbed and edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $25

206220 Nicholson, Ian Log of Logs - Roebuck Society Publication No.41 A Catalogue of Logs, Journals, Shipboard Diaries, Letters, and all forms of Voyage Narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand and Surrounding Oceans The author/The Australian Association for Maritime History Inc., Nambour Qld., nd. (1988). Royal octavo; paperback; 630pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Owner's small sticker on obverse of front card cover; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn with some creasing to spine panel; text block top edge lightly toned and spotted. Very good. Click here to order $30

205953 Noble, Captain John The Golden Age of Sail of Australia and New Zealand Currey O'Neil, Melbourne Vic., 1985. Square quarto; hardcover; 118pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; board edges slightly scraped. Dustwrapper lightly worn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Click here to order $25

208533 Olijnyk, Elynor Frances (Rolf Christiansen, illus.) Charles Robbins, RN, 1782-1805 - signed by author His Place in Maritime History Photographic Art Gallery, np., 2004. Octavo; hardcover, with illustrated boards and endpaper maps; 914pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; signed with an inscription in ink to the title page. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Charles Robbins (1782-1805) was a British Royal Navy officer and navigator in the early nineteenth century and was involved in the early exploration of Bass Strait and Port Phillip in southern Australia. Click here to order $35

13608 O'May, Harry Wooden Hookers of Hobart Town and Whalers out of Van Dieman's Land T.J. Hughes, Tasmania, 1978. Hardcover, octavo; green cloth boards with black upper board titling; 137 + 101pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; mildly rubbed board edges; lightly toned text block edges; a few marks to rear panel of wrapper, chipping on head of spine. Otherwise very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

62706 Parker, Mary Ann A Voyage Round the World Hordern House, Potts Point, 1991. Hardcover facsimile of the 1795 edition. Limited edition of 750, hand bound in half maroon Scottish calf with marbled papered sides, octavo, 149pp., and dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales; this the first of the Australian National Maritime Museum's Historical Facsimile Series. Marbled boards with insect damage along front side and top edge with less pronounced wear in small spots on rear board. Text block edges lightly toned and faintly spotted on upper edge. Printed on Ivory Kilmory Text. Very good to near fine. No slipcase. Three years after the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, Mary Ann Parker became Australia's first tourist. Her journal of the voyage out and back, 'A Voyage Around the World in the Gorgon Man of War', is the first account of the new colony to be published by a woman. Mary Ann Parker made the voyage for her own interest and her husband's company. Her account provides important insight into the life and interests of a woman undertaking what was then the longest and most dangerous voyage on earth. Click here to order $100

76116 Parkin, Ray H.M. Bark Endeavour Miegunyah Press, Carlton South Vic., 1999. Third revised edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titling and a burgundy ribbon; 468pp., with many tables, charts and black & white illustrations, and 15 folding ship schematics in a sympathetically styled, gilt-titled box, all in a labelled slipcase. Minor spotting to the top edge of the text volume; some minor rubbing to the slipcase. Very good. Ray Parkin lived a harrowing life at sea: in 1928 he joined the Royal Australian Navy and served an eighteen-year stint which saw his ship, the HMAS Perth, torpedoed in 1942 by the Japanese, after which he was interned in a POW camp and worked on the Burma-Siam railway and later as an indentured coalminer in Japan. After his rescue and later retirement, he dedicated his life to writing the definitive overview of HM's Bark The Endeavour, a project in which he was wholeheartedly supported by J.C. Beaglehole, Captain Cook's premier biographer. The result of twenty-five years of painstaking research, is this astonishing book, which outlines everything there is to know about this ship, perhaps the most famous nautical craft in Australia's history. The work contains not only a plethora of maps and schematics, but also a composite log of her journeys, interweaving the records of many of those who travelled onboard, edited by Parkin, as well as a list of myriad facts about the craft right down to what she would have smelt like. Did she have a lightning rod? How many strands of yarn were there in her ship's cable? What was the diameter of her main mast? All of this and an unbelievable amount more is contained herein. Click here to order $230

209092 Phillips, Peter River Boat Days on the Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1974. Oblong quarto hardcover; black boards with gilt upper board and spine titling, brown endpapers; 127pp., b&w illustrations. Small scrape on front board and mild rubbing to board edges, corners bumped; spotting to text block edges; long tear on upper rear corner of dustwrapper with small tear on lower spine panel edge; sunning to spine and chipping at extremities and corners; a few superficial scratches. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film with white paper backing. Click here to order $25

33331 Plowman, Peter Emigrant Ships to Luxury Liners Passenger Ships to Australia and New Zealand 1945 -1990 NSW University Press, Kensington NSW, 1992. First edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 296pp., with 8pp. of colour plates and many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; somewhat shaken and rolled; spine extremities softened; minor spotting to the text block edges; mild offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper a little rubbed and edgeworn; small tear to the spine panel head and upper flap-turn with associated creasing; old price sticker to the lower panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Every ship which visited Australia or New Zealand between 1946-1990 is described here; where and when it was built, tonnage, dimensions, service speed and method of propulsion. Also included are stories of the owners and builders, the crew and the often hapless passengers who sailed in them. Click here to order $60

208494 Potter, Bill The Mahogany Ship: Relic or Legend? Proceedings of the Second Australian Symposium on the Mahogany Ship The Mahogany Ship Committee and Warrnambool Institute Press, 1987. Quarto paperback; 130pp., b&w charts, diagrams, illustrations. Toned text block edges; mild rubbing and edgewear to covers. Very good. Click here to order $30

206055 Preston, Diana Paradise in Chains The Bounty Mutiny and the Founding of Australia Bloomsbury USA/Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., New York NY, 2017. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 335pp., with a map and 16pp. of colour plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. The story of the mutiny of the Bounty and William Bligh and his men's survival on the open ocean for 48 days and 3,618 miles has become the stuff of legend. But few realize that Bligh's escape across the seas was not the only open-boat journey in that era of British exploration and colonization. Indeed, 9 convicts from the Australian penal colony, led by Mary Bryant, also travelled 3,250 miles across the open ocean and some uncharted seas to land at the same port Bligh had reached only months before. In this meticulously researched dual narrative of survival, Diana Preston provides the background and context to explain the thrilling open-boat voyages each party survived and the Pacific Island nations each encountered on their journey to safety. As the story evolves, readers come to understand the Pacific Islands as they were and as they were perceived, and how these seemingly utopian lands became a place where mutineers, convicts, and eventually the natives themselves, were chained. Click here to order $24

67519 Rigby, Nigel & Pieter ven der Merwe & Glyn Williams Pioneers of the Pacific Voyages of Exploration 1787-1810 University of Western Australia, 2005. Quarto hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling; 144pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear only; very good to near fine. The voyages of Captain Cook marked the end of early European voyages in the Pacific and launched a new era of scientific exploration and commercial and colonial exploitation. Introducing six of Cook's immediate successors in the Great South Sea, Pioneers of the Pacific draws together accounts of the voyages of Arthur Phillip, Compte de Laperouse, William Bligh, Alejandro Malaspina, George Vancouver and Matthew Flinders. Click here to order $24

208402 Sampson, Helen One Ship, Two Names, Three Voyages - signed The Story of the Sirius Quality Press, 2006. Stapled octavo booklet; 51pp., colour plates. Signed in ink by the author. Mild toning to text block edges and slight wear to cover edges. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $18

45819 Smith, C. Fox Painted Ports Hollis & Carter Ltd., London, 1961. Octavo hardcover; green boards with black spine titling; 230pp., monochrome frontispiece and plates. Mild wear to board edges; toned text block edges. Well-rubbed illustrated dustwrapper with moderate wear and chipping to edges and corners with slightly toned spine panel. Very good. In the great days of sail, the painted ports of the Devitt & Moore shipping company's square-riggers were a familiar sight in all the ports on the Australian run. Captain Course, author of "The Deep Sea Tramp", who himself served in sail, here traces the history of the company from its beginnings in 1836 as the venture of two ambitious clerks to the present day when the traditions of seamanship which made Devitt & Moore ships so famous are continued at the Pangbourne Naval College. With its numerous illustrations and appendices listing all vessels owned by Devitt & Moore, together with their captains, "Painted Ports" is an important contribution in a relatively unexplored field of research which will have a wide appeal not only to nautical and social historians but to all interested in sailing, and is an important chapter in the story of Britain's greatness as a seafaring nation. Click here to order $25

77350 Terry, Martin Maritime Paintings of Early Australia, 1788-1900 Miegunyah Press/Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic., Australia, 1998. Quarto; hardcover; 114pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed; sunned lightly along the spine. Very good. Australia is a nation whose modern incarnation has its roots in the sea. The first white artists to come to these shores had a clear-stated duty to observe and record the country to which they had been sent, noting landscapes, flora and fauna: oftentimes, their images depict ships and other nautical phenomena as a means of stressing the distant origins of their subjects. Artists without such duties imposed on their creativity often painted images of ships at sea or battling storms, underscoring the faraway notions of "home". Throughout the European occupation of Australia, the sea and its accoutrements has been an important subject for artists to capture: this volume covers a wide range of exponents, their schools, and their techniques in exhibiting the breadth of maritime imagery which this country has produced. Click here to order $50