The Pirates of the Brig Cyprus by Frank Clune and P. R. Stephensen

The Pirates of the Brig Cyprus

by Frank Clune and P. R. Stephensen

Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962, [First Edition], hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing to edges and corners (see photographs)

“This is the first complete and accurate account of one of the most extraordinary adventures in the annals of seamanship and crime.  On 14 August 1829 the brig Cyprus was sheltering in Recherche Bay on the south-east coast of Van Diemen’s Land.  She was taking a batch of convicts to the penal settlement at MacQuarie Harbour.  With Captain drunk, the Mate and Army lieutenant lured out of the way by accident or design, the convicts mutinied under the skilfully disguised leadership of William Walker – alias William Swallow – who had, unknown to the authorities, already once been transported to Van Diemen’s Land and had escaped.  Swallow’s remarkable pertinacity in sailing the stolen brig to New Zealand, the Tonga Islands and Japan, before scuttling her in the China Seas, provides an epic of leadership and endurance, and the adventures of the military guard and the un-mutinous convicts who were marooned ashore is an extraordinary tale of vacillating pusillanimity among the officers in charge, and heroism and enterprise in the little double-crossing cockney who did his best to betray his fellow-convicts.”