Passage to Torres Strait

Miles Hordern has not only written about his voyage from New Zealand to Darwin (via Vanuatu and Tikopia (a remote island, part of the Solomon Islands) and the Torres Strait), but has also plotted the history of the many beachcombers and castaways of the pacific.
He has an easy writing style, very non-technical on the nautical aspects (on purpose, he states at the start of his glossary) but with an obvious passion for what he does. His research is thorough, and he chooses to run the two narratives together in an interesting yet logical pattern.

As he describes the cabin of his Twister 28 yacht named ‘Gordian', he mentions his shelf of books and photocopied books - mostly biographies by beachcomber and castaways which form the basis of his research. His bibliography is lengthy, and regularly he mentions his cross referencing / corroborating sources for their history.

I hadn't realised that the term ‘beachcomber' meant more than just a person who walks the beach taking salvage or whatever flotsam and jetsam washes up. In Hordern's book is specifically refers to a white man living with natives in the South Pacific. This definition widens to account for - those shipwecked on or near the islands, those put ashore and abandoned by ships, those captured and kept as slaves by the natives, and those who have sought out that life.

Hordern's history is thorough - far too through and interspersed in his narrative for me pick out many of the key examples - and he does return to certain stories to add layers of detail, which works well in his context. There is much I learned about the Pacific Nations - and especially how brutally they responded to invaders on their lands - very brutally! So many corpses must line those beautiful beaches we long to visit.

The later part of the book deals with his passage through the Torres Strait (Between Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea) - a dangerous, shallow strait riddled with coral reefs and complex currents, which has claimed more than its fair share of shipwrecks. His visits to Thursday island and Darwin were interesting to me as I have a friend who lives and works on both - although I didn't make it to TI on my visit to Darwin). Similarly, Hordern's brief mention of the Somerset settlement - which I had read about in Peter Pinney's Too Many Spears.

In my view Hordern has got the mix in this book right. There is enough of the solo yachtsperson, there is enough of the day to day routine (but not too much), and the blend of his own voyage and the history of the places he visits and the previous visitors makes for a dynamic narrative that kept me interested. One of the few books I have read lately that I have consciously slowed down on, in order to preserve the pleasure of reading it for a little longer.

5 stars.