Once there were hundreds of wooden ketches like 'Redbill' fishing for pearlshell in the old north-west of Australia, but none of them had her amazing gift for survival.
'Redbill' lived through the great days of Broome pearling, and when was came she was there as bombs began to fall. In Papua she hunted crocodiles and carried cargo for a tribe reclaiming its lost arts.
As 'Redbill' of Greenpeace she sailed the South Pacific to defy the French. She helped the refugees of East Timor, she carried troubled teenagers through the rough waters of Bass Strait and she found the way home for a young Aboriginal man.
Over a century 'Redbill' coped with a lot - and then she ran into Rosita - the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike Broome in ninety years ....
Like many before her, author Kate Lance fell for 'Redbill's' gentle magic, and in this richly illustrated book she traces the many lives of a most remarkable vessel.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Shell Games
2. The Phantom Fleet
3. Incursions and Empires
4. HMAS Redbill
5. A Fleet No More
6. Top Boat
7. People of the North-West Hurricane
8. Of Islands and Icefloes
9. Redbill of Greenpeace
10. A Sanctuary with Sails
11. Letting Go the Mooring Lines
12. The Sooty Oystercatchers
Appendix: Redbill's Lines
Endnotes
Bibliography
Metric Conversion Table
Index of Boats
Index
