Fair Winds to Australia: 200 Years of Sail on the Australian Station

by Lew Lind

When in January 1988 the lofty silhouettes of a fleet of tall ships ghosted their way through the early morning sun of Sydney Heads, they were paying homage to that great concourse of sailing vessels which has spanned two centuries of Australia's history.

Once more the wharfs and berths became familiar with the subtle differences of full-rigged ships, barques, barquentines, brigs, brigantines, schooners, topsail schooners and cutters. And the raising and lowering of square sails, staysails, spankers and topsails.

A long dead vocabulary was resurrected with terms like bowsprits, dolphin strikers, figureheads, halyards, Cape Horn fever, deadlights, fids, chippies, peggies, dodgers, scuppers and warps. The year of the Tall Ships, as much as any other aspect of the Bicentenary, brought home the seafaring origins of the nation.

This is a pictorial history of 200 years of sail on the Australia station. The author recounts the founding and the voyage of Captain Phillip's first fleet as the start of a long line of Royal Navy and Colonial Navy ships. He continues through to the Antarctic research vessel HMAS Wyatt Earp, as the last commissioned ship of the Royal Australian Navy to carry sail.

This is a book of wind-driven ships crewed by courageous sailors discovering, exploring, sustaining and defending Australia.