Cirrus@Austlit

'More than one million Australians can trace their heritage to the migrant ships of the mid-to-late 19th century...

'The story of the Clipper ships, and the tens of thousands of migrants they bought to the Australian colony of the nineteenth century, is one of the world's great migration stories. For anyone who travelled to Australia before 1850, it was a long and arduous journey that could take as much as four months. With the arrival of the clipper ships, and favourable winds, the journey from England could be done in a little over half this time. It was a revolution in travel that made the clipper ships the jet airlines of their day, bringing keen and willing migrants 'down under' in record time, all hell-bent on making their fortune in Australia.

'Rob Mundle is back on the water, with a ripping story that starts on the sea, aboard a clipper ship charging across the Southern Ocean, laden with passengers heading for Melbourne in response to the lure of gold. Brimming with countless stories of the magnificent ships and fearless (and feckless) characters we find on them, like Englishman "Bully" Forbes and American "Bully" Waterman driving their ships to the limit and the tragic legacy of the many shipwrecks that were so much a part of this era.' (Publication Summary)

'Captain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime explorers of all time. Written with colour, sweep and the authority of Robert Mundle's five decades as a competitive sailor, maritime journalist and broadcaster, this extensively researched new biography of Cook will put you on the quarterdeck with the great navigator as he painstakingly guides his ship through dangerous, reef-strewn waters. You will also be alongside the captain when his ship is a wave-width away from annihilation; and at the helm, when he calls for the anchor to be weighed and his men to heave hard on the lines, and at the start of an exciting new voyage.' (Publication summary)

'The First Fleet - the creation of a nation.

'Rob Mundle, bestselling maritime biographer of Bligh, Flinders and Cook, is back on the ocean to tell one of the great stories of expedition under sail: the extraordinary eight-month, 17,000-nautical-mile voyage of the First Fleet.

'With customary sweep and swell, Mundle puts you alongside 48-year-old Captain Arthur Phillip on the quarterdeck of the Royal Navy escort HMS Sirius, as he commands his small armada of eleven ships, carrying over 1400 men, women and children, to the other side of the world.

'At the heart of Mundle's story of the First Fleet is the extraordinary seamanship of the masters and their crews in their day-to-day workings on individual ships, battling all that nature could throw at them - from disastrous conditions to disease - in order to fulfil the grand plans and strategic visions of politicians and authorities. To arrive in Sydney Cove in January 1788 with all ships intact and such a low loss of life is a tribute to Phillip, his officers and crews, and to the wherewithal and brilliance of eighteenth-century seamanship.' (Publication summary)

'Captain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime explorers of all time - only the acclaimed fifteenth-century explorers, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, can stand with him. Bestselling author of Fatal Storm, Bligh and Flinders, Rob Mundle explores the life and travels of James Cook in a major new biography for lovers of adventure and the romance of sail. Over three remarkable voyages of discovery into the Pacific in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Cook unravelled the centuries-old mystery surrounding the existence of the great south land, Terra Australis Incognita; became the first explorer to circumnavigate New Zealand and prove it comprised two main islands; discovered the Hawaiian Islands; and much more. Cook was a man who pursued a teenager's dream that evolved from a chance encounter in a small seafront village on the east coast of England. It was a dream that became a reality and transported him to legendary status among all who mapped the world, on land and sea. Through the combination of hard-won skills as a seafarer, the talents of a self-taught navigator and surveyor, and an exceptional ability to lead and care for his men, Cook contributed to changing the shape of the world map more than anyone else.' (Publisher's blurb)