He described the event in the historical and social contexts of its time: a new  convict colony on the edge of the known world, which had no governor for three years. A new governor, George Hunter, had to contend with  the firm hold over its economy by John McArthur and a corrupt group of military officers known as the ‘Rum Corps.’

Alternating chapters allow the reader to follow the voyage of the ship Sydney Cove from its origins in Calcutta, to its wreck just off Tasmania. Its cargo was purely commercial: goods to be sold at a profit to the settlers in New South Wales – and most prized of all was the alcohol loaded into the ship’s hold, especially the 7,000 gallons of rum. This liquor had become an unofficial currency in the colony, to the detriment of all aspects of daily life, and its trade was monopolised by the Rum Corps, despite official efforts to discourage and/or control its import and sale.

 In 1796, Calcutta-based Scottish merchants Campbell & Clark, owners of the Sydney Cove sent their cargo, hoping for a tidy profit and to establish a trading presence in the colony.  Unfortunately the ship sprang a leak, and the crew worked around the clock on pumps to avoid sinking. The monetary value of the alcohol helps to explain why the ship’s master, William Clark, went to such lengths to preserve the cargo when the ship eventually foundered on Preservation Island just north of Tasmania. 

Seventeen of the survivors set out in a longboat (leaving 30 crew members behind) to sail across what would later be known as Bass Strait to the mainland and Sydney. They were a mix of European and Indian-born sailors, known as ‘lascars’. Europeans did not then know if Tasmania was an island or if it was joined to the mainland. The journey was recorded by Clark in a pocket notebook he carried with him. 

Adam described the group’s interactions with the First Nations people they encountered along the way. They passed through the country of at least six Indigenous clans and experienced both generous assistance and firm warnings from them. If it had not been for the local people, the travellers would have died from starvation or exposure many times. They were given food, shown shortcuts, and sometimes helped across rivers on canoes. Gradually the seventeen became seven, then reduced further until only three were finally rescued just south of Sydney.

Clark then told others of numerous seal colonies and plentiful seams of coal that he had seen on the way, and his discussions with George Bass and Mathew Flinders inspired their consequent explorations. 

The party of sailors demonstrated enormous personal courage and strength to endure the trials they were subjected to. Clark’s account appears to hint at his changing view of the First Australians he met: from ‘barbarous hordes’ to generous and kind individuals. 

What happened to the thirty crew members left behind on Preservation Island north of Tasmania? Adam encouraged us to read his book to find out. 

Questions from the audience elicited further information about the Rum Corps, the beer that was included in the cargo, and Adam’s twenty other stories with historical connections, and how they should be told. 

In thanking Adam for his dissertation, MC David Rush hinted that Adam’s other published books are well worth a read. 

To be “three sheets to the wind” is to be drunk. The sheet is the line that controls the sails on a ship. If the line is not secured, the sail flops in the wind, and the ship loses headway and control. If all three sails are loose, the ship is out of control.

Adam Courtenay is a Sydney-based writer and financial journalist. He has had a long career in the UK and Australia, writing for papers such as the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, the SMH/Age  and for magazines including Forbes and Company Director. Adam has a love of Australian history and biography and has written six books, including The Ship That Never Was, The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter and Three Sheets to the Wind. 

Royalty-free Photos from PIXABAY