AustLit

'A sea-going ruffian of no ordinary calibre, Amaso Delano, of Boston, Mass., was a master shipbuilder a daring navigator a complete hypocrite and a thoroughly unscrupulous rogue. In the course of a four-year voyage in a 200-ton ship of his own construction, he honoured Australian waters with a visit in 1804, the year before the battle of Trafalgar. Though it could not be said that he added anything to Australian history, his stay among the sealers throws some light on life on the Bass Strait Islands at that time.

These episodes in Delano's career are based on entries in his own diary, which he faithfully kept for many years, apparently omitting on villainy. He was one too many for the simple sealers of the Straits, but his sharp practice nearly cost him a fortune in the long run.

Men like Delano can scarcely be judged by ordinary standards. They sailed in days when men lived dangerously and died hard, and their tiny ships opened up in a new world.

While the great seas crashed on the decks above, and worn, patched sails strained in a howling Cape Horn gale, until it seemed that every minute would see the 'Perseverance' founder beneath him, Delano opened his Journal and wrote: "...None of the great navigators, Dampier, Cook, La Perouse, ever represented difficulty in doubling Cape Horn. Such complaints are only made by men of lesser ability..."

Delano himself had no complaints.' (p. 392)