The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
A foreign sailor on a British merchant ship goes mad during a voyage to Singapore. He sabotages the ship and threatens violence until another ship arrives to offer assistance to the crew.
The narrator signs on to sail on a small cutter bound from Melbourne to Fremantle. During the journey, he and the rest of the crew are imperilled by the captain's inexperience, storms, and an inquisitive whale.
A man who has been washed overboard is rescued by a passing ship after surviving a week adrift. His rescuers then chance upon the wreckage of the man's ship where his wife and son cling to life. Motivated by love, the man sacrifices himself to save his son.
Selby is chief officer on the 'Marathon'. On a voyage to Java he discovers that the new ship's captain and a passenger are planning to steal the ship's cargo of gold. Selby takes steps to foil the plot.
The 'Schoolboy' sets out on a voyage to the South Sea islands to recruit islander labourers to work on Queensland cane plantations. A mutiny led by the 'kanaka' interpreter, however, results in the deaths of most of the crew and the destruction of the 'Schoolboy'.
