King of the Australian Coast: The Work of Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid and Bathurst, 1817-1822

This biography recounts the adventures of Phillip Parker King, a marine surveyor who completed a series of grueling voyages between 1817 and 1822 up the northwest coast of Australia. His journeys brought him to King George Sound and Van Diemen's Land as well as the treacherous waters of the Great Barrier Reef, places which serve as the backdrop to his encounters with shoals and tides, reefs and wildlife, and Aboriginal peoples. Written through the observant lens of a sailor, this work considers whether King's faithful service and unscandalous lifestyle have contributed to his relative obscurity in modern scholarship.