The Navigators: Flinders vs Baudin: The Race Between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin to Discover the Fabled Passage Through the Middle of Australia by Klaus Toft

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Previous owner has signed inside page, now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Bend to front cover right tail corner. Pages are sunned.

Based on the ABC mini series.

In 1800, it is widely rumoured that a strait separates the two halves of Australia. Napoleon Bonaparte, disturbed by the successful British colony in Sydney, sends famed explorer Nicolas Baudin and two ships to chart the strait, with a view to claiming the western part of the continent for France.

In response, the British send young and ambitious Matthew Flinders in pursuit in a leaky ship.

This is the exciting story of the race between the two men to discover the fabled strait, in the process completing the charting of the entire Australian coastline. It is a tale of exploration, superpowers at war, and the huge collection of plants and animals Baudin's expedition brought back, which enabled Josephine Bonaparte to create her Australian garden, Malmaison, near Paris. It is a story of lies and betrayal ending with the imprisonment of one captain and the death of the other. (back cover)