Newcastle Lifeboat. (Report of Commission, &c.)
Sydney, Government Printer, 1866.
Foolscap folio, 68 pages.
Drop-title; small holes in the inner margins where stab-sewn when bound (now disbound), with secondary page numbers (107-174) stamped in the top corners; a fine copy.
New South Wales Parliamentary Paper 127-A of 1866. The Commission, under Commander Thomas Goss RN, was called for after the loss of the SS 'Cawarra' (and several other ships) off the Port of Newcastle on 12 July 1866. Many lives were lost, including 60 from the 'Cawarra' (from which there was only one survivor). 'You will have observed in the newspaper accounts of the late shipwrecks at Newcastle, that general complaints were made of the mismanagement and inefficiency of the harbour lifeboat on that occasion' (from the Under Secretary's initial letter). Offered together with a related paper in identical condition (New South Wales Parliamentary Paper 237 of 1866): 'Loss of the Steamer "Cawarra"'. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Cause thereof; together with the Evidence taken at the Inquiry' (30 pages plus a folding plan: 'Displacement Scale of PS [sic] "Cawarra"', 330 x 370 mm, dated January 1867). Comprehensive accounts of a significant tragedy.
Item #102487
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