Under Full Sail by Rob Mundle

Under Full Sail by Rob Mundle

How the mighty clipper ships transformed Australia from convict outpost to a nation.

More than one million Australians can trace their heritage to the migrant ships of the mid-to-late 19th century.

The story of the Clipper ships, and the tens of thousands of migrants they brought to the Australian colony of the 19th century, is one of the world's great migration stories. For anyone who travelled to Australia before 1850, it was a long and arduous journey that could take as much as four months. With the arrival of the clipper ships, and favourable winds, the journey from England could be done in a little over half this time. It was a revolution in travel that made the clipper ships the jet airlines of their day, bringing keen and willing migrants 'down under' in record time, all hell-bent on making their fortune in Australia.

Rob Mundle is back on the water, with a ripping story that starts on the sea, aboard a clipper ship charging across the Southern Ocean, laden with passengers heading for Melbourne in response to the lure of gold. Brimming with countless stories of the magnificent ships and fearless (and feckless) characters we find on them, like Englishman 'Bully' Forbes and American 'Bully' Waterman driving their ships to the limit and the tragic legacy of the many shipwrecks that were so much a part of this era.

ROB MUNDLE OAM is a bestselling author, writer, and broadcaster who grew up on Sydney's northside, first in Cremorne and subsequently on the northern beaches. As a four-year-old, he began sailing in a small sandpit sailboat with his younger brothers, Dennis and Bruce, and the household cat. Rob was granted an Order of Australia Medal in 2013 for his services to sailing and journalism. He is a veteran media analyst and competitive sailor who is widely regarded as Australia's voice of sailing. Rob is the author of 18 books, including the best-selling Bligh, Flinders, Cook, The First Fleet, Great South Land, and Under Full Sail, all about nautical history. Fatal Storm, his book on the terrible 54th Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, was an international success and was translated into six languages.

Rob has covered seven America's Cup matches (including live international television coverage of Australia's historic triumph in 1983), four Olympics, and a slew of other important events, including the Sydney-Hobart classic over the past 50 years. He has raced in the Sydney-Hobart three times and has won local, state, and national sailing championships, as well as competing in a number of important international offshore competitions. Rob is currently the media manager for the supermaxi Sydney-Hobart racer, Wild Oats XI, as well as a member of the organising committee of Hamilton Island Race Week, Australia's largest keelboat regatta, and a Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum's Mariculture Program. Rob was a founding member of the Hayman Island Large Boat Series and a past Commodore of the Gold Coast's Southport Yacht Club.

He is also the sole Australian on the Selection Committee for the America's Cup Hall of Fame. Rob lives at Main Beach, on the edge of the Gold Coast Broadwater, because he loves the sea and sailing.