In 200l an Australian expedition of seven men set out from Western Australia for the far South Atlantic, on a journey to find the final resting places of two famous exploration vessels.

The French frigate Uranie, commanded by Louis de Freycinet was lost in the Falkland Islands in 1820, and William Dampier’s ship Roebuck, was wrecked at Ascension Island in 1701.

Both captains, Dampier the acclaimed navigator and natural historian, controversial for his association with buccaneers, and Freycinet the smart-as-paint French officer, played important roles in exploring the Western Australian coast. They also shared the unhappy fate of being wrecked on desolate, uninhabited islands while homeward bound. What the modern Australians discovered in their search was far beyond their expectations, perhaps beyond even their imaginations.

In this fascinating account of the lives of two very different captains – and the love story of Rose de Freycinet, smuggled illegally aboard her husband’s ship – Hugh Edwards skillfully places the historical context against the excitement of the successful search for the lost ships. A triumph of modern adventure.

Hugh Edwards is Western Australia’s most widely published author, with twelve of his 30 books published overseas in six languages. His best known work Islands Of Angry Ghosts, about the 1629 Batavia shipwreck, was awarded the Sir Thomas White Memorial Prize.