PIONEER SHIPPING OF TASMANIA

Southland Times, Issue 23664, 12 November 1938, Page 8

PIONEER SHIPPING OF TASMANIA

A comprehensive history of whaling, sealing, shipwrecks and the general shipping activities of early Tasmania is contained in Pioneer Shipping of Tasmania, a well-bound volume compiled and written by L. Norman, and printed by J. Walsh and Sons, Hobart. . Mr Norman has made an exhaustive study of his subject, and in the course of more than 200 pages of letterpress and illustrations he captures the romance of the colourful days of the square-rigged ships and the many other types of vessels which plied between overseas ports and “The Speck.” There is a flavour about some of the passages which quickens the interest as the development of the island community, its hardships and progress, is unfolded. From first to last the chapters are invested with that wealth of romance and interest which is never very far separated from the records of ships that sail the seven seas. The volume covers more than the shipping of Tasmania; it refers to the period before Tasmania’s ports were open to commerce, when none but Government vessels was permitted to enter the Derwent and the Tamar. There is the true picture of the whaling industry, when seamen bore with amazing fortitude the perils and hardships of their calling, and the hundred and one incidents of the waterfronts. Pioneer Shipping of Tasmania also gives in tabloid form the earliest history of Tasmania, but in the main it tells the story of the mercantile marine and its development. More than 1000 vessels are mentioned, and with them the men who played their parts in shipping. The work has literary merit and the compilation of historical details reveals a rare capacity for research.