In 1789, as the Bounty was sailing through the western Pacific Ocean on its return voyage with a cargo of Tahitian plants, disgruntled crewmen seized control of the ship from their captain. The mutineers set their captain and the 18 men who remained loyal to him adrift in one of the ship’s boats, with minimal food supplied and navigational aids, and only four cutlasses for weapons. For the past 225 years, the story of the Bounty's voyage has captured the public's imagination. Two compelling characters emerge at the forefront of the mutiny: Lieutenant William Bligh, and his deputy – and ringleader of the mutiny – Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian. One is a villain and the other a hero – who plays each role depends on how you view the story. With multiple narratives and incomplete information, some paint Bligh as tyrannical and abusive, and Christian as his deputy who broke under extreme emotional pressure. Others view Bligh as a victim and a hero, and Christian self-indulgent and underhanded. Alan Frost looks past these common narrative structures to shed new light on what truly happened during the infamous expedition. Reviewing previous accounts and explanations of the voyage and subsequent mutiny, and placing it within a broader historical context, Frost investigates the mayhem, mutiny and mythology of the Bounty.

This practical handbook is a comprehensive guide to the conservation of older bridges, commissioned by the UK Highways Agency. It provides essential guidance and recommendations for bridge conservation, repair and maintenance strategies, and proposes a new approach to best practice for bridge conservation. Conservation of Bridges covers all types of highway, foot, railway, river and canal bridges built before 1960. It comprehensively deals with state-of-the-art methods of conservation, as well as structural form and behaviour, architecture, archaeology, legislation, and attitudes to conservation. With case studies from all over the world and full colour illustrative photographs throughout, the book demonstrates what has, and can continue to be achieved in the pursuit of excellence in this field. Conservation of Bridges is essential reading for all engineers, architects and other professional groups responsible for the ongoing maintenance of a diverse bridge heritage.

This book digs deeper and sheds new light on the decision to start a colony in Australia. He examines the impact of the American War of Independence and Britain's shifting strategic aims, the role of ministerial incompetence and ambition, and the concerns of a turbulent society obsessed with law and order. In doing so, he questions several accepted ideas about how and why Britain set its sights on an Australian colony.

In 1787 a convoy of eleven ships, carrying about 1500 people, set out from England for Botany Bay. According to the conventional account, it was a shambolic affair: under - prepared, poorly equipped and ill - disciplined. Robert Hughes condemned the organisers' ''muddle and lack of foresight'', while Manning Clark described scenes of ''indescribable misery and confusion''. In The First Fleet: The Real Story, Alan Frost draws on previously forgotten records to debunk these persistent myths. He shows that the voyage was in fact meticulously planned - reflecting its importance to the British government's secret ambitions for imperial expansion. He examines the ships and supplies, passengers and behind - the - scenes discussions. In the process, he reveals the hopes and schemes of those who planned the voyage, and the experiences of those who made it.

A new interest in European maritime exploration was aroused with the publication of the first volume of J. C. Beaglehole's edition of The Journals of Captain James Cook in 1955. In the forty-odd years since then, our knowledge of this exploration—and of the imperialism of which it was a part—has expanded enormously. We now recognise that the scientific endeavours, once seen as disinterested manifestations of the Enlightenment, actually had both strategic and commercial implications. And today much greater emphasis is given to the meanings fof early encounters for both the Natives of the Pacific islands and the Strangers from a European world. Glyndwr Williams has played a leading role in the development of these new insights. Pacific Empires offers stimulating contributions by a number of his colleagues, all authorities in their respective fields. It is a timely examination of historical understandings at the end of the twentieth century.

In this book you will discover what it meant to sail with Captain Cook into the uncharted waters of the South Pacific, why the Endeavour sought out the mysterious Great South Land and what kind of man Cook was.

Now in one definitive volume, Botany Bay and the First Fleet is a full, authentic account of the beginnings of modern Australia. In 1787 a convoy of eleven ships, carrying about 1400 people, set out from England for Botany Bay, on the east coast of New South Wales. In deciding on Botany Bay, British authorities hoped not only to rid Britain of its excess criminals, but also to gain a key strategic outpost and take control of valuable natural resources. According to the conventional account, it was a shambolic affair: under-prepared, poorly equipped and ill-disciplined. Here, Alan Frost debunks these myths, and shows that the voyage was in fact meticulously planned – reflecting its importance to Britain’s imperial and commercial ambitions. In his examination of the ships, passengers and preparation, Frost reveals the hopes and schemes of those who engineered the voyage, and the experiences of those who made it. The culmination of thirty-five years’ study of previously neglected archives, Botany Bay and the First Fleet offers new and surprising insights into how Australia came to be.

Presenting new information from archival research in Australia, Europe, South Africa, and North and South America, this is the first biography to cover in full the life of Arthur Phillip, the founding governor of New South Wales. The book tells the fascinating story of an extraordinary egalitarian who travelled the Artic and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, finally finding himself on the shores of what he would establish as the colony of New South Wales.

The first dozen years of European settlement of Australia are fixed in our minds by powerful images raised from an incomplete historical record. The reality was quite different. Alan Frost, after collecting a greatly expanded range of documents from archives around the world, sets the record straight. The images he challenges are immediately familiar: * overcrowded and unhealthy English prison hulks * the colony as a cheap solution to the convict problem * hasty decisions based on overly optimistic assessment of the land's fertility * a poorly equipped and managed First Fleet * subsequent neglect by Britain * long years of deprivation and bare survival * callous treatment of Aborigines, and the unleashing of smallpox among them * opportunistic and aberrant use of the notion of terra nullius Provocative and well-argued, Botany Bay Mirages contrasts the realities with the long-accepted illusions. It will reshape our thinking about our origins.