Award-Winning Maritime Books
REDBILL: From Pearls to Peace
By Kate LancePublished by: Fremantle Arts Centre Press Fremantle, 2004 Winner of Western Australian Premier's Book Award 2004 for Non-Fiction"Built in 1903 for the Broome pearling industry, Redbill went on to an eventful life that spanned nearly a century and some major historical events ... At various times it was crewed by troubled teenagers, crocodile farmers, ecologists and others who all fell under its spell. One of those captivated was Lance, who chronicles with warmth and affection its remarkable adventures." Judges' Comments, Western Australian Premier's Book Awards 2004Redbill is the true story of a sailing boat's voyage through a century of Australian history. She began life as a pearlshell lugger owned by the extraordinary pearling master Captain Gregory, carrying Japanese divers in Broome and Darwin. During the Pacific War she was commissioned as naval ship H.M.A.S. Redbill and was bombed in Darwin by the Japanese. After the war the lugger went pearling and crocodile-hunting in Papua, then in the 1990s worked for Greenpeace in Tahiti, raised funds for East Timor refugees, filmed a Bass Strait documentary called If It Doesn't Kill You, and reunited a young Aboriginal man with his long-lost family. Finally, Redbill took on an epic voyage around the coast of Australia to return to the North-West, to face her greatest challenge yet: Rosita, the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike Broome in ninety years ...
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ALAN VILLERS: Voyager of the Winds
By Kate LancePublished by: National Maritime Museum, UK, 2009 UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009 Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Award 2009 for Best Literary Contribution"For her truly illuminating biography of Alan Villiers, a complex and sometime difficult man who had an immense influence on the popular understanding of voyaging under sail. Voyager of the Winds is outstandingly researched and beautifully written as it unfurls the true character of this extraordinary seafarer." Awards Committee, Maritime Foundation Media Awards 2009Australian journalist Alan Villiers sailed on the last giant commercial sailing ships during the 1920s and 1930s, when his maritime writings and photographs made him world-famous. This biography, drawn from his personal diaries, explores the talented man who crewed on magnificent Herzogin Cecilie, part-owned the Grain Race winner Parma, sailed the tiny ship Joseph Conrad around the world, voyaged with Arabian traders, commanded Allied landing craft in World War II, captained the Mayflower replica across the Atlantic, and inspired modern sail-training and ship-preservation efforts. His major works include Falmouth For Orders, By Way of Cape Horn, Voyage of the Parma, Cruise of the Conrad, Sons of Sindbad, The Set of the Sails, Quest of the Schooner Argus, Give Me a Ship to Sail, Posted Missing, Captain Cook: the Seaman's Seaman and The War with Cape Horn. This biography of Alan Villiers is both a memorial to the greatest sailing ships ever launched and to the extraordinary man who loved them. You can buy Alan Villiers from the publishers or most online bookstores. |
Header image from Making Cape Naturaliste, watercolour, Ross Shardlow 2004