AustLit

'On 15 May 1797 a fishing boat passing Wattamolla, in what is now Sydney’s Royal National Park, spotted three men on the beach. Rescued and returned to Sydney, the trio – tea merchant and supercargo William Clarke, sailor John Bennet, and Clarke’s lascar manservant, Srinivas – told an extraordinary story. After their ship, the Sydney Cove, was wrecked on Preservation Island in Bass Strait, they, along with fourteen other men, had set off in a longboat, hoping to fetch help for the other survivors. But when the longboat was also wrecked off the Ninety Mile Beach along Victoria, the survivors chose to do the only thing left open to them: follow the coast north on foot until they found help.'  (Introduction)

'The Sydney Cove has the mixed distinction of being among the first ships wrecked on Australia’s east coast; it was on its way from Calcutta to Port Jackson in 1797 when it wrecked on an island – now called Preservation Island – in Bass Strait. Seventeen men survived and set off in the ship’s longboat to Port Jackson, on the way to which they wrecked again, this time on the mainland, leaving them few choices but to walk the 600-plus kilometres to Sydney from Ninety Mile Beach. Three survivors – a British merchant, a Scottish merchant and one Indian lascar – made it to Sydney, where, in this fourth novel by Jock Serong, those able to communicate are interrogated by Lieutenant Joshua Grayling, who is tasked with solving the many mysteries their bodies bear. One of them has a broken nose. Another has been speared through both hands.' (Introduction)