Trouble Around The Coasts

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 3

Trouble Around The Coasts

Coast of Treachery. By Eugene Grayland. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 207 pp. Index. Eugene Grayland’s “New Zealand Disasters” was confined to tragedies caused by the forces of nature. He follows it up with this collection of true stories of disasters, caused by acts of men —massacres, mutiny and piracy perpetrated round New Zealand coasts from the first clash between Maoris and Abel Tasman’s sailors in 1642 to the exploits of Count von Luckner in 1917, In between, in chronological sequence there are included 22 other tales of bloodshed—including accounts of the murder of Marion du Fresne, the Boyd massacre, the exploits of the pirates who seized the brig Wellington and of others who brought the brig Cyprus to New Zealand waters, the plundering of the Harriet, the mystery of the Jean Bart, the Wairau tragedy, the drama of the ship Sarah W. Hunt. Eugene Grayland has the journalist’s flair for ferretting out and bringing alive the excitement and shock of halfremembered dramatic episodes. His reconstruction of these striking events is popular history at its best. To each story there is a climax, but there is no exaggeration or striving for effect, and the account of each episode is factually correct. For his material the author has delved into dusty archives, old ships’ log-books, the diaries of early missionaries, newspaper records of longforgotten trials and courts of inquiry. Where there exist conflicting accounts of the one episode (as for instance in the case of the Boyd massacre of 1809), without des-

troying the dramatic interest of the tale the author has indicated where differences of opinion exist and has then stated his own conclusions. The more serious reader will - wish that Mr Grayland had paid more attention to documentation so that the reader could follow up different clues in the narrative for himself. Of course, the purpose of the book is light entertainment, not edification, but it is regrettable that the research put into it has been frittered away in fitful source references.