Swallowed by the sea : the story of Australia's shipwrecks
Henderson, Gordon2016
Books, Manuscripts
This book tells the stories of Australia's greatest and most tragic shipwrecks, lost in raging storms, on jagged reefs, under enemy fire, or through human error, treachery or incompetence. Read about the oldest known wreck in Australian waters, the Tryal, driven into a maze of sunken rocks by the inept and reluctant Captain Brookes, and about Australia's worst civil disaster at sea, the loss of emigrant barque Cataraqui, which struck a reef off King Island in the middle of a stormy night, careened over onto its port side and then broke up, eventually disappearing under the water along with more than 400 men, women and children. The violent wrecking of ships is only part of the story. Maritime archaeologist Graeme Henderson has personally located and dived many of the shipwrecks in this book. He describes diving in heavy turbulence to raise sandstone blocks and artillery pieces from the Batavia, the eerie experience of looking up at the jagged undercut cliffs that bore witness to the drowning of asylum seekers on SIEV 221, and swimming the length of the 50-metre HMS Pandora wreck, recording iron cannon, copper sheathing and other objects immune to the wood-devouring marine worms. Alongside historical paintings and photographs of original objects, the book includes colour underwater photographs of the dive sites with specially written recollections by members of the diving crew. From English and Dutch trading vessels in the seventeenth century to emigrant ships in the nineteenth century and the great warships of the Second World War, Swallowed by the Sea explains how each ship was wrecked and discovered, and what remains of the wrecks today.
Main title:
Swallowed by the sea : the story of Australia's shipwrecks / Graeme Henderson.
Imprint:
Canberra, ACT : NLA Publishing, [2016]Canberra, ACT NLA Publishing Perth, WA Western Australian Museum, [2016]©2016
Collation:
xii, 225 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), maps (some colour), portraits (some colour), facsimiles ; 27 cm.
Notes:
National Library's N copy signed by the author.Includes bibliographical references (page 206-213) and index.
Contents:
The loss of the Tryal, the oldest known wreck in Australian waters, in 1622 -- The Dutch East India Company's ship, Batavia, lost in 1629 -- Closing in on the Fortuyn wreck of 1724 -- The loss of HMS Sirius, escort to the First Fleet, in 1790 -- The loss of HMS Pandora in 1791 -- The loss of HMS Porpoise and the Cato in 1803 -- HM Colonial Schooner Mermaid lost in 1829 -- Ladies on the shore -- The loss of emigrant barque Cataraqui, Australia's worst maritime civil disaster in 1845 -- The loss of the clipper ship, Dunbar in 1857 -- The intercolonial steamship Cheviot lost om 1887 -- The loss of HMAS Sydney II in 1941, the greatest maritime disaster in Australian waters -- The bombing of Darwin in 1942 -- The loss of the asylum boat SIEV 221 in 2010.
ISBN:
9780642278944
Dewey class:
910.452
Language:
English
Subject:
Index terms:
Australian
BRN:
17176
More Information: