Bold and Lucky
Australia’s Colonial Navy 1824–1831
Alan Powell
Sydney, NSW: Arcadia: Australian Scholarly Publications, 2022
Paperback pp135 RRP: $39.95
Reviewer: Kevan Sanderson, September 2024
Alan Powell’s Bold & Lucky: Australia’s Colonial Navy describes a rag-tag assembly of brigs, cutters, schooners and sloops, ‘seagoing maids of all work’, pressed into service to deliver life-preserving supplies to colonial Australia’s military outposts in the years 1824 - 1831. From the earliest days of settlement Australia's governors explored the far reaches of the territory for vital resources: areas settled to harvest resources then needed to be supplied and protected from early French military threats. The ships that established and maintained isolated military posts in the north and west of Australia are described by the author as ‘the ring fence around Australia’. During the early days of settlement these ships were deemed essential, but by 1828 Governor Darling claimed the outposts difficult to sustain and administer because of their remoteness from Sydney and their very existence jeopardized the parent colony The era of supplying remote outposts on the Australian coast through a New South Wales government fleet finished in 1831, never to be revived.
Describing this motley collection as ‘Australia’s Colonial Navy’ is a long bow to draw, and Powell’s title is somewhat deceptive. His justification is that the ships meet the definition of a navy, given in the Australian Edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, namely ‘the whole body of a nation’s ships of war’; a definition, which frankly, has many shortcomings. A navy, however, more than a collection of ships and sailors, is an organised body of regulations, customs and traditions, properly planned, funded and administered, for which, Powell provides scant evidence. In fact, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) officially came into being in 1911 growing out of ten years of the Commonwealth Naval forces so the ships that Powell describes pre-date the RAN by 70 years or more.
That said, this book explores key aspects of the early years of European settlement in Australia and the New South Wales government fleet of mainly small sailing vessels. It is particularly illuminating in showing the range of crucial tasks vessels conducted despite facing the considerable risks of being attacked or wrecked whilst sailing vast distances through largely uncharted waters.
At just over 100 pages, the narrowly focussed subject matter of Bold & Lucky is better described as a monograph than a book and does not take long to read. Well researched, the many and varied vessels, their origins, history and ultimate ends, are described in considerable detail which may attract any reader with an interest in ships and boats minutiae. A number of plates of reproductions of paintings and sketches of people and ships and remarkably, even a few photographs, are included. However, the book is littered with extensive in-line references to government instructions and colonial correspondence, making it dry and somewhat academic.
More distracting, and the main reason I found this book hard to read, is its poor organisation. The chapters, at first glance, appear to be organised by time period, reflect the ragtag nature of the colonial fleet they describe. The periods, in fact, overlap considerably, making historical context difficult and create the impression that the book was hastily compiled by stringing six essays in sequence. Chapters covering ships or ship types or by settlement or task served, would have made much more sense.
Whilst I agree with the author’s assertion that the colonial navy provided vital service to the creation of modern Australia I did not enjoy reading Bold & Lucky.
The RUSI – Vic Library thanks the publisher for making this work available for review.