lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Australian maritime history

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31261 Bremer, Stuart Australia's Golden Era of Ships Bullion Books, Silverwater, 1989. Hardcover quarto; blue boards with white upper board and spine titles; monochrome photographic endpapers, prelims and frontispiece; 224pp., numerous monochrome plates. Minor wear; mildly scraped lower board corners with very slight wear to edges; light spotting to upper text block edges. Illustrated blue dustwrapper with mild edgewear (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. A nostalgic look at the golden age of Australian maritime history, focusing on the prominent passenger liners and cargo shipping lines that connected Australia to the world and travelled its coastline. Click here to order $22

12222 Bromby, Robin German Raiders of the South Seas The Naval Threat to Australia/New Zealand 1914-17 Doubleday Australia Pty. Ltd., Sydney NSW, 1985. First edition: quarto; hardcover; 208pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; cocked; spine heel softened; light spotting to the text block top edge. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. In the first days of World War I a German light cruiser detached itself from the East Asiatic Squadron with the mission to raid and harass Allied shipping. The ship, "SMS Emden", not only became world famous in its two months of raiding, during which it sank sixteen ships and captured others, but demonstrated to a cunning enemy the vulnerability of Australian, New Zealand and Empire shipping links. The two dominions were left with little naval protection as Britain gathered its ships to fight the Germans in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Then in 1916, came another raider, the "Wolf", which, undetected and unmolested, laid mines around Australia and New Zealand and preyed upon merchant ships sailing in the Tasman Sea and South Pacific. The following year the Germans made an abortive attempt to send a sailing ship to raid the South Seas, which ended when the "Seeadler" was wrecked on a small atoll. With over eighty black and white photographs, many of them previously unpublished, and detailed maps of the routes of the major ships, "German Raiders" makes fascinating reading and is an important addition to the naval history of Australia and New Zealand. Click here to order $28

89132 Carlton, Mike Cruiser - signed copy The Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and Her Crew William Heinemann Ltd., North Sydney NSW, 2010. Signed hardcover, octavo; red boards with black spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 706pp., monochrome and colour plates, appendices, references, bibliography, index. Minor wear; lower board edges and corners slightly worn; toned text block edges. Otherwise near fine in like dustwrappers and covered in protective film with white paper backing. Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navy's finest fighting sailor, 'Hardover' Hec Waller. Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at war's end. 'Cruiser', by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story. And the story of those who loved them and waited for them. Click here to order $35

215419 Carruthers, Steven L. Japanese Submarine Raiders 1942 - signed A Maritime Mystery Casper Publications Pty. Ltd., Narrabeen NSW, 2006. Revised edition: octavo; hardcover; 264pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; some small marks to the upper board; spine head lightly sunned; signed by the author in ink to the flyleaf. Near fine in like dustwrapper. Click here to order $30

208584 Fowell, Newton (Nance Irvine, ed.) The Sirius Letters - signed The Complete Letters of Newton Fowell Midshipman & Lieutenant aboard the Sirius Flagship of the First Fleet on its Voyage to New South Wales The Fairfax Library, Sydney NSW, 1988. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt upper board and spine titling and decorative endpapers; 176pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly shaken; softening to the spine extremities; a minor bump to the upper board; text block edges very lightly toned; previous owner's large ink inscription to the verso of the flyleaf; signed by the editor to the half-title page. Dustwrapper is rubbed and edgeworn; sunned along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Appendix consists of extracts from the writings of four other voyagers on the First Fleet: James Scott, John Easty, Phillip King and Arthur Bowes-Smyth. Click here to order $45

33734 Kerr, Margaret & Colin Australia's Early Whalemen Rigby Publishers Ltd., Adelaide, SA, Australia, 1980. Small quarto; hardcover; 64pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Text block edges lightly toned and spotted; mild edgewear to boards. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Very good. Australia's early whalemen battled turbulent seas, shipwrecks, hunger and disease in their ruthless search for whales. At the mercy of the whale's fury boats were capsized and men drowned. Killer whales darting through the water at thirty knots, frequently towed away boats full of men never to be heard of again. Whaling became a major industry in Australia and Tasmania. Bay whaling stations were set up on many parts of the southern Australian coast and islands. Click here to order $18

10739 Lawson, Will Pacific Steamers The History, Rise, and Development of Steamers on the Australian, New Zealand, and Western American Coasts Brown Son and Ferguson, Glasgow Scotland UK, 1927. First edition. Octavo, hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titles; 244pp., with a half-tone frontispiece and many plates likewise. Slightly rolled; very mild softening of the spine extremities; spotting and dusting of the text block edges; offset to the endpapers; retailer's bookplate to the front pastedown; spine cracked. Lacks dustwrapper. Good. This is the story of the early endeavours of steamships in the Pacific when there were few docks or repair shops, when most ships were their own foundry; the many wrecks a testimony to this. The early pioneers were not hampered however, by these considerations. The spirit of adventure and enterprise pervaded the development of the engines - where rivalry and competition frequently spurred on the officers to take risks and make innovations to the ships. Illustrations from photographs and paintings add to the gripping quality of the book as well as its historic value. Click here to order $45

89199 le Maire, Jacob (Alexander Dalrymple, trans.; Introduction by Edward Duyker) Mirror of the Australian Navigation - Australian National Maritime series, No. 5. Australian National Maritime Museum/Hordern House, Potts Point NSW, 1999. Quarto; hardcover; quarter-bound by hand in alum-tawed goat leather with marbled boards; 196pp., on cream stock, 15 colour illustrations. Very minor wear. Near fine. A facsimile of the "Spieghel der Australische Navigatie, Being an Account of the Voyage of Jacob LeMaire and William Schouten in 1615-1616", published in Amsterdam in 1622 with an introductory essay by Edward Duyker and English text by Alexander Dalrymple. Le Maire, a wealthy Dutch merchant, established The Australian Company ("Australische of Zuid Compagnie") to break the monopoly of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), find the presumed fabulously wealthy Terra Australis, and at the same time find an alternative route via the Southern tip of South America to the East Indies, previously controlled by the Portuguese until the advent of the VOC. Limited edition of 900 copies. Click here to order $100

94182 Montgomerie, H.S. William Bligh of the "Bounty" in Fact and in Fable Williams and Norgate, London, 1937. First edition: hardcover, octavo; blue cloth boards with red spine titling; 308pp., monochrome plates and illustrations with fold-out illustrations and maps. Owner's name. Minor wear; foxing to prelims and title page with scattered spotting thereafter; browned and spotted text block edges. Very good. Lacks dustwrapper. Click here to order $30

208533 Olijnyk, Elynor Frances (Rolf Christiansen, illus.) Charles Robbins, RN, 1782-1805 - signed by author His Place in Maritime History Photographic Art Gallery, np., 2004. Octavo; hardcover, with illustrated boards and endpaper maps; 914pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; signed with an inscription in ink to the title page. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Charles Robbins (1782-1805) was a British Royal Navy officer and navigator in the early nineteenth century and was involved in the early exploration of Bass Strait and Port Phillip in southern Australia. Click here to order $32

62706 Parker, Mary Ann A Voyage Round the World Hordern House, Potts Point, 1991. Hardcover facsimile of the 1795 edition. Limited edition of 750, hand bound in half maroon Scottish calf with marbled papered sides, octavo, 149pp., and dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales; this the first of the Australian National Maritime Museum's Historical Facsimile Series. Marbled boards with insect damage along front side and top edge with less pronounced wear in small spots on rear board. Text block edges lightly toned and faintly spotted on upper edge. Printed on Ivory Kilmory Text. Very good to near fine. No slipcase. Three years after the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, Mary Ann Parker became Australia's first tourist. Her journal of the voyage out and back, 'A Voyage Around the World in the Gorgon Man of War', is the first account of the new colony to be published by a woman. Mary Ann Parker made the voyage for her own interest and her husband's company. Her account provides important insight into the life and interests of a woman undertaking what was then the longest and most dangerous voyage on earth. Click here to order $75

217864 Parkin, Ray H.M. Bark Endeavour Her place in Australian history; With an Account of her Construction, Crew and Equipment and a Narrative of her Voyage on the East Coast of New Holland in the Year 1770 Miegunyah Press/Melbourne University Press, Melbourne Vic., 2020. Third edition: quarto; hardcover; red buckram boards with gilt upper board and spine titles; red endpapers; 467pp., with many monochrome schematics, charts and illustrations; red ribbon marker. Very mild wear only; fine in like dustwrapper. Ray Parkin lived a harrowing life at sea: in 1928 he joined the Royal Australian Navy and served an eighteen-year stint which saw his ship, the HMAS Perth, torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942, after which he was interned in a POW camp and worked on the Burma-Siam railway, and later as an indentured coalminer in Japan. After his retirement, he dedicated his life to writing the definitive overview of HM's Bark The Endeavour, a project in which he was wholeheartedly supported by J.C. Beaglehole, Captain Cook's definitive biographer. The result of twenty-five years of painstaking research, this astonishing book, which outlines everything there is to know about this ship, perhaps the most famous nautical craft in Australia's history. The work contains not only a plethora of maps and schematics, but also a composite log of her journeys, interweaving the records of many of those who travelled onboard, edited by Parkin, as well as a list of myriad facts about the craft right down to what she would have smelt like. Did she have a lightning rod? How many strands of yarn were there in her ship's cable? What was the diameter of her main mast? All of this and an unbelievable amount more is contained herein. Click here to order $50

76116 Parkin, Ray H.M. Bark Endeavour Miegunyah Press, Carlton South Vic., 1999. Third revised edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titling and a burgundy ribbon; 468pp., with many tables, charts and black & white illustrations, and 15 folding ship schematics in a sympathetically styled, gilt-titled box, all in a labelled slipcase. Minor spotting to the top edge of the text volume; some minor rubbing to the slipcase. Very good. Ray Parkin lived a harrowing life at sea: in 1928 he joined the Royal Australian Navy and served an eighteen-year stint which saw his ship, the HMAS Perth, torpedoed in 1942 by the Japanese, after which he was interned in a POW camp and worked on the Burma-Siam railway and later as an indentured coalminer in Japan. After his rescue and later retirement, he dedicated his life to writing the definitive overview of HM's Bark The Endeavour, a project in which he was wholeheartedly supported by J.C. Beaglehole, Captain Cook's premier biographer. The result of twenty-five years of painstaking research, is this astonishing book, which outlines everything there is to know about this ship, perhaps the most famous nautical craft in Australia's history. The work contains not only a plethora of maps and schematics, but also a composite log of her journeys, interweaving the records of many of those who travelled onboard, edited by Parkin, as well as a list of myriad facts about the craft right down to what she would have smelt like. Did she have a lightning rod? How many strands of yarn were there in her ship's cable? What was the diameter of her main mast? All of this and an unbelievable amount more is contained herein. Click here to order $200

33331 Plowman, Peter Emigrant Ships to Luxury Liners Passenger Ships to Australia and New Zealand 1945 -1990 NSW University Press, Kensington NSW, 1992. First edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 296pp., with 8pp. of colour plates and many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; somewhat shaken and rolled; spine extremities softened; minor spotting to the text block edges; mild offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper a little rubbed and edgeworn; small tear to the spine panel head and upper flap-turn with associated creasing; old price sticker to the lower panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Every ship which visited Australia or New Zealand between 1946-1990 is described here; where and when it was built, tonnage, dimensions, service speed and method of propulsion. Also included are stories of the owners and builders, the crew and the often hapless passengers who sailed in them. Click here to order $50

206055 Preston, Diana Paradise in Chains The Bounty Mutiny and the Founding of Australia Bloomsbury USA/Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., New York NY, 2017. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 335pp., with a map and 16pp. of colour plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. The story of the mutiny of the Bounty and William Bligh and his men's survival on the open ocean for 48 days and 3,618 miles has become the stuff of legend. But few realize that Bligh's escape across the seas was not the only open-boat journey in that era of British exploration and colonization. Indeed, 9 convicts from the Australian penal colony, led by Mary Bryant, also travelled 3,250 miles across the open ocean and some uncharted seas to land at the same port Bligh had reached only months before. In this meticulously researched dual narrative of survival, Diana Preston provides the background and context to explain the thrilling open-boat voyages each party survived and the Pacific Island nations each encountered on their journey to safety. As the story evolves, readers come to understand the Pacific Islands as they were and as they were perceived, and how these seemingly utopian lands became a place where mutineers, convicts, and eventually the natives themselves, were chained. Click here to order $24

77350 Terry, Martin Maritime Paintings of Early Australia, 1788-1900 Miegunyah Press/Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic., Australia, 1998. Quarto; hardcover; 114pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed; sunned lightly along the spine. Very good. Australia is a nation whose modern incarnation has its roots in the sea. The first white artists to come to these shores had a clear-stated duty to observe and record the country to which they had been sent, noting landscapes, flora and fauna: oftentimes, their images depict ships and other nautical phenomena as a means of stressing the distant origins of their subjects. Artists without such duties imposed on their creativity often painted images of ships at sea or battling storms, underscoring the faraway notions of "home". Throughout the European occupation of Australia, the sea and its accoutrements has been an important subject for artists to capture: this volume covers a wide range of exponents, their schools, and their techniques in exhibiting the breadth of maritime imagery which this country has produced. Click here to order $40