This is the second of two volumes dealing with more than 1200 well-known and little-known shipwrecks in Australian warers. The first volume was written by Charles Bateson. As with the first volume, this book includes vessels travelling around the Australian coast in pursuit of trade and those bound to and from Australia. This volume covers the period from 1851 to 1871, when shipping activity around Australia increased enormously - a time when Australia was no exception to the rapid expansion for maritime countries the world over. The rich promise of whale oil or gold lured thousands of ships to Australia and its ill-charted shores. Local trade in coal and the Kanaka slave trade and pearling all added to the ativity - and unfortunately, to the tragedies...