Bøker av Edward Duyker

First English translation of de Rossel's transcription of d'Entrecasteaux's journal, with introductory essay and explanatory notes. In 1791 Admiral Bruny d'Entrecasteaux sailed with two ships from Revolutionary France to search for his compatriot, the explorer La Pérouse, who was missing in the Pacific. Over a period of nearly two years he had held his ideologically divided expedition together. Without his exceptional maritime skills his men (and one cross-dressing woman!) might all have died-or played out the destructive fury of the Revolution on the quarterdeck before reaching Java. More than two centuries later, d'Entrecasteaux's account of his voyage remains a profound affirmation of his achievements. His humane, sensitive and even joyful encounters with the peoples of Australia and the Pacific make this a remarkably appealing book. Although d'Entrecasteaux failed to discover the fate of La Pérouse, and perished in the attempt, his voyage was more than a mere rescue mission. Between 1791 and 1793 the expedition discovered the Derwent estuary and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel between Bruny Island...

Winner of the Frank Broeze Maritime History Prize in 2007 In 1800 François Péron gained a place as an assistant zoologist on Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australian waters. He rose rapidly through the expedition's ranks and wrote its official account. In doing so, Péron sought to destroy Baudin's posthumous reputation. In 1800 François Péron, an ambitious young medical student not long released from the French revolutionary army, gained a place as an assistant zoologist on Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australian waters. As his colleagues either deserted or died, he would rise rapidly within the expedition's ranks and even write its official account. In doing so, Péron would seek to destroy Baudin's posthumous reputation. The expedition was famously marked by the vexed relationship between Péron and Baudin, but Péron's work, as a man of science, profoundly enhanced the achievements of the expedition: he seized valuable opportunities to pioneer zoological, oceanographic and ethnographic studies, and as an ecological observer was remarkably prescient. Edward Duyker's meticulously researched biography of Péron takes readers on an engaging and wide-ranging journey-from the heart of pre-revolutionary rural France, to the bitter fighting on the Rhineland front in 1793-94, to the late eighteenth-century Paris medical school, to landfalls in the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, to the little-known shores of Van Diemen's Land and New Holland, and back into the very heart of Napoleon's Empire. This is both a balanced assessment of the difficult relationship between Péron and Baudin, and an analysis of the conduct of science during some of the most turbulent years in French history.

This is the first full biography of an important eighteenth-century naturalist, a colleague of Banks on the Endeavour. Nature's Argonaut is the first full biography of this important eighteenth-century naturalist who not only circled the globe under sail but ranged as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Tierra del Fuego. Edward Duyker pays particular attention to Solander's role as a naturalist on the Endeavour during the ship's voyage along the east coast of Australia and to his pioneering contribution to the scientific study of the new continent. The author has also provided a comprehensive account of Solander's life and his contribution to the foundations of modern plant and animal taxonomy. The life of Daniel Solander, stamped with the enquiring spirit of the Enlightenment, is one of the grand adventures of the eighteenth century. Aside from the historic Endeavour voyage, Solander's Arctic travels, his involvement in industrial espionage in England on behalf of Sweden, his thwarted love for the daughter of his mentor Linnaeus and his friendships with such men as Joseph Banks, James Cook, Samuel Johnson, Matthew Boulton and Benjamin Franklin make Solander an exciting biographical subject.

Emily Skinner, vibrant, observant, eternally young-at-heart, emigrated from Britain to Australia in 1854. Not only did she keep a ship-board journal, she later recorded her reminiscences of a colourful life as a miner's wife.Here, published for the first time, is Emily's account of a voyage half-way around the word to marry her sweetheart. She evokes wild storms, sea sickness, the malaise and boredom, the gossip and intrigue. Her impressions of the young town of Melbourne follow, as well as her recollections of what is now the town of Beechworth and the surrounding goldfields.Emily reaches across the years with her vivid descriptions contrasting the realities in her workday life--cooking, washing, childminding--with the wild dreams and aspirations of the miners. This personable account speaks to every reader as a refreshing and energetic story of a pioneering life which was tough and rigorous but always embraced.

French explorer Marion Dufresne was the man who reached Tasmania before the English. His expedition was the first to encounter the Tasmanian Aborigines and was a precursor of the great voyages of La Pérouse, d'Entrecasteaux, Baudin and d'Urville. To Australian and New Zealand readers this elegant biography will be, as Frank Horner writes, 'a reminder, or a revelation of the international context in which the English explorations of their homelands took place'. The eighteenth-century conflict between Britain and France is mirrored in Marion Dufresne's life.The parallels with Cook are striking. Like his English contemporary, Marion was a brilliant mariner who proved his skills in merchant shipping before joining his nation's Royal Navy. Like Cook he was involved in scientific efforts to observe the Transit of Venus and sought the Southland in uncharted waters. Finally, he too died tragically at the hands of Polynesians.