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Escape to the Sea – The Adventures of Fred Rebell [Single Handed Small Boat across the Pacific]

Scarce and sought after voyaging account despite being second printing 1951 – try and find another.

Published by John Murray, London. Octavo, 254 pages, illustrated with good voyage chart and from original photographs. Jacket aged and torn to spine – previous book owners stamp on title otherwise a nice clean copy of as we say a hard to come by worthy account.

Fred Rebell was born in Russian occupied Latvia and made his break and off to Australia. Sitting in the Sydney public library he dreamed of sailing, proper sailing – something he had never done before. His goal was set high, and this account is of his first outing, a 9,000 mile open boat voyage from Sydney to California. Nice in the moment writing with considerable detail … New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Danger Islands, Hawaii then the long haul to California.

Unfortunately, in California his passport documents were seen as, well sort of “home- made” and he was without funds which saw him jailed [twice] and eventually deported!

Nothing came that easy to Fred Rebell – all the way across the Pacific without any previous experience.

$40.00

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Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1936 – Meston on the Origin of the Tasmanians

Printed by Shimmins, Hobart – the Government Printer. Published, as always, a year later – 1937.

Contains a number of papers of natural history interest – crustaceans, leaf-hoppers, and fossil plane [at Warrentinna, North East Tasmania.

A good paper by much hated Crowther on an early sealing voyage in the Bass Staits – the schooner “Brothers” Captain Kelly. Historical content is from a manuscript log by Kelly in Crowthers hands – we would love to know where it is now. This is an early voyage indeed before Kelly’s circumnavigation of the island. They had a total cull of over 7,000 seals [poor things]. Salt to preserve the skins was got from Kangaroo Island.

Distinguished anthropologist A.L. Meston offers a thoroughly considered paper on the origins of the Tasmanian aboriginal. Written without prejudice we think – he debunks the then theory that they arrived via Pacific Islands [via New Caledonia] and believes that they arrived in Northern Australia and after moving south, island hopping over the Bass Strait having the skill to build the bark canoes that feature in our modern view of their history. Interesting report.

Original soft wrappers, larger size, 104 pages, illustrated with scientific drawings, images form photographs etc. A nice copy.

The origin of the Tasmanian aboriginals, voyage of the Brothers etc

$80.00

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Biggles Flies to Work – Captain W.E. Johns

Published by Dean, London, no date but 1960’s.

Octavo, 184 pages, ownership to front end papers, dust jacket chipped otherwise a good internally clean copy.

A smorgasbord of eleven Biggles yarns including the case of “the Early Boy”

Fun Biggles Collection

$25.00

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Biggles and the Black Peril – Captain W.E. Johns

Published by Dean, London, no date but 1960’s.

Octavo, 184 pages, light creases to good jacket, clean internally, a nice copy.

The crash of a mysterious flying boat lead Biggles and his cohorts to Russia and another exciting adventure

Biggles – no Peril too big for him

$30.00

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Biggles Flies Again – Captain W.E. Johns

Published by Dean, London – in arrangement with Thames, no date but 1960’s.

Octavo, 1183 pages, one pen mark on end papers, pages somewhat browned as use with this edition. Dust jacket good all else good to better.

The swamps of British Guiana (British of course). An Arabian island and a Russian Agent

Biggles Again – of course!

$25.00

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Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1908 [Interesting papers of Aboriginal Interest]

Printed at the “Examiner” Launceston this is a set of papers of special interest as they include five papers by Fritz Noetling – two regarding Aboriginal stone implements; a chipped (source stone) boulder near Kempton; a burial ground near Ross; and an Aboriginal quarry at Syndal.

In addition, there is a paper – an introduction to the study of Aboriginal Speech by H.B. Ritz. And, a rare contribution from esteemed photographer James Beattie on the Gordan River and environs.

Original soft wrappers, xix pages followed by 94 pages including the accounts and list of Fellows.

Noetling was a German born mining engineer and at this stage was an Officer of the Society. He has previously worked in India and produced a similar body of work there. His large collection of Tasmanian Tronattas is held by the Liepzig museum. Unfortunately, after the outbreak of WWI he was interned and after the war sent back to Germany.

Ritz was Swiss and taught foreign languages in Hobart.

Special papers of Aboriginal interest – well worth preserving.

$80.00

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All products

Escape to the Sea – The Adventures of Fred Rebell [Single Handed Small Boat across the Pacific]

Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1936 – Meston on the Origin of the Tasmanians

Biggles Flies to Work – Captain W.E. Johns

Biggles and the Black Peril – Captain W.E. Johns

Biggles Flies Again – Captain W.E. Johns

Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania – 1908 [Interesting papers of Aboriginal Interest]

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