Wreck of the Sydney Cove by Max Jeffreys

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Pages have sunned. Dust jacket has light creasing at top and tail. Interior and binding are still excellent.

In February 1797, the merchant vessel Sydney Cove was on a speculative trading voyage from Bengal, India, to Port Jackson, New South Wales. Near the end of its trip, the ship floundered off Preservation Island, Bass Strait, in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Stranded off the north-east coast of Van Diemen's Land, the crew's only hope was to send some of their number in the ship's longboat to Port Jackson to raise the alarm. The longboat was wrecked off the Victorian coast. Its 17 crew then began a further ordeal of a 400-mile trek to the distant colony. Only three crew members survived. This journey represents the first overland expedition of any magnitude by Europeans.

The Wreck of the Sydney Cove is a dramatised reconstruction of events based on the diary of a survivor. (book flap)