Pirates of the South China Sea
Ron Druett 2002
Selected Works
Biography
The story of the extraordinary -- but unacknowledged -- Polynesian who ensured the success of Cook's first discovery voyage
A first Wiki Coffin Mystery
Murder most foul in Portsmouth, Virginia, is solved in the middle of the Atlantic.
A Wiki Coffin maritime mystery
Pirate-hunting on the coast of Brazil
A Wiki Coffin Mystery
Wiki Coffin must clear his father's name of murder in this third seafaring mystery set aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition
A Wiki Coffin mystery set in Patagonia
Wiki Coffin joins the Patagonian gauchos to solve a grotesque murder
Castaway drama
A gripping tale of two starkly contrasting castaway experiences
Revenge at Sea
Murder and rebellion on the whaleship Sharon.
Women Under Sail
Heroines and hellions of the sea.
Captains' wives at sea.
Surgeons under sail.
Whaling surgeons in South Seas.
Quick Links
The Mystery Place
Home of the world's best short mystery fiction
Random House New Zealand
Publishers of TUPAIA, THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CAPTAIN COOK'S POLYNESIAN NAVIGATOR
Rough Medicine
Imagine a four-year voyage trapped on board a grubby little whaling ship with people who don’t like or respect you, even though you are doing your best to keep them hale and healthy!
I recreated the lives of these adventurous men through the journals kept by eleven surgeons who sailed in the broad Pacific and reef-studded, fever-ridden South China Sea in the 1830s--and a colorful lot of characters those eleven men turned out to be. Several were tattooed, one being the hilariously adventurous John Coulter, who was stranded with cannibals in the Marquesas and fought in a tribal battle. Other surgeons battled constantly with their own captains, who were determined to make them pay their way by doing common seamen’s work. While Rough Medicine has bloodchilling tales aplenty, there is a lot of rough humor, too.
'Carefully researched, elegantly illustrated with line drawings, and vividly written in lucid prose, this wonderful book is pleasing to leaf through and rewarding to read."
-- G. Eknoyan, Choice.
I recreated the lives of these adventurous men through the journals kept by eleven surgeons who sailed in the broad Pacific and reef-studded, fever-ridden South China Sea in the 1830s--and a colorful lot of characters those eleven men turned out to be. Several were tattooed, one being the hilariously adventurous John Coulter, who was stranded with cannibals in the Marquesas and fought in a tribal battle. Other surgeons battled constantly with their own captains, who were determined to make them pay their way by doing common seamen’s work. While Rough Medicine has bloodchilling tales aplenty, there is a lot of rough humor, too.
'Carefully researched, elegantly illustrated with line drawings, and vividly written in lucid prose, this wonderful book is pleasing to leaf through and rewarding to read."
-- G. Eknoyan, Choice.