Adventure on the high seas
The Navigators

by Klaus Toft, Duffy and Snellgrove, 354 pages. $20

Reviewer :: Michael Weaver

The story could not be condensed into two hours of television.

If you long for a genuine tale of adventure on the high seas, this is a great read. Furthermore, The Navigators, derived from an ABC series of the same name, unveils fascinating history about the so-called race between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin to discover the fabled passage through the middle of Australia.

Toft’s original brief was to produce a documentary about Matthew Flinders to coincide with the bicentennial of his voyage, but his research soon found that to tell the story of Flinders without reference to Baudin would be like telling the story of Bonaparte without mentioning Josephine.

The full story could not be condensed into two hours of television, thus the book was born.

The Navigators puts into perspective the part Baudin played in our history and how he was held responsible for France’s failure to colonise Terres Australes. “An enormous historical injustice was done to the Baudin’s memory,” Toft writes in his prologue.

At the end of the book, he notes that Flinders’ name was honoured in Australia in more than 90 places, while the name Baudin appeared in only eight.

Between all this is a tale of exploration, lies, betrayal and a huge collection of plants and animals, ending with the imprisonment of one captain and the death of another.

It is also not surprising that the book has far outsold the video.

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