Chronicles how 19th-century clipper ships revolutionised migration to Australia, transforming it from a penal colony into a thriving nation.

Author:	Rob Mundle, audiobook read by Paul English
Publisher:	ABC Books, November 14, 2016
ISBN:	9780733334696  (ISBN10: 0733334695)
Characteristics:	374 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, portraits ; 25 cm.
Source:	Yarra Plenty Library Service
Date Read:	08-Oct-2025 audiobook 20-Jan-2026 hardcover book

Hard Cover Book

Some months later, I got around to reading the hard cover version. As expected, it’s easier to take note of details in the text.

Some history was most unexpected, with a link to my favourite ship disaster movie.

The White Star Line

The author features the White Star Line, famous as the owners of Titanic, and it seems their company culture of rushing projects is not new, with this earlier incident by the company noted in the book.

Remarkably, just over half a century after the loss of
Tayleur, there came an extraordinary coincidence in maritime
history when the world-famous steamship Titanic sank after
colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Both Tayleur
and Titanic were the largest British-built vessels of their type
when launched, and both were on their maiden voyages when
lost. Moreover, both were sailing under the flag of the White
Star Line.

Under Full Sail, by Rob Mundle. Page 220.

Clipper Poetry

One regular visitor to the shipyards was the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who, being awestruck by the beautiful ship slowly growing and coming into form, was inspired to write a poem:

And first with nicest skill and art,
Perfect and finished in every part,
A little model the Master wrought,
Which should be to the larger plan
What the child is to the man,
Its counterpart in miniature …

Day by day the vessel grew,
With timbers fashioned strong and true,
Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee,
Till, framed with perfect symmetry,
A skeleton ship rose up to view!
And around the bows and along the side
The heavy hammers and mallets plied,
Till after many a week, at length,
Wonderful for form and strength,
Sublime in its enormous bulk,
Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk!

Off Topic

What was obvious in the book and not so much listening to the audiobook was how off-topic the author goes in places. Almost two chapters talk about the gold rushes to California and Australia. While the clipper ships played a vital role in enabling the gold rushes to attract such high traffic, there isn’t much mention about the clippers apart from which ones were about at the time.

Once past these chapters, the book comes back to clippers with some highly engaging sea stories.

Hard Copy Book Bonus

One advantage with a book is the included images, and Under Full Sail has plenty. They can be searched for online, but this would mean messing about stopping the audiobook, maybe rewinding to get the name correct, guessing the spelling and then searching. With a book it’s all there, ready to copy accurately to your favourite web browser.

One detail I missed on the audiobook was the significance of the figurehead leaning over proudly at the very front of the ship. Women with ample cleavage were favourites, as it was believed their feminine charms calmed the seas. Oddly, women were not welcome on clipper ships as they were considered bad luck, but I guess wooden ones are mostly harmless!

Audiobook

Another audiobook, but this one was so good I will have to read the hard copy book. It covers in great detail the history of sailing ships, mostly in the context of them opening up Australia.

A lot of time is spent on the fast clipper ships, from their early development to their final last runs competing with steam ships, which they did surprisingly well. The main advantage sail had over steam back then was endurance. But as steamship technology developed, especially when the triple expansion steam engine was perfected, this advantage was reduced. Further to the defeat of sail was the opening of the Suez Canal, which sailing ships could not navigate.

I love all the details about how the ships were built, including the statistics behind these huge wooden (and steel too) builds. I am looking forward to the book, when it will be easier to stop and backtrack to savour the details, which is hard to do with an audiobook.

Further Reading

The Era of the Clipper Ships: The Legacy of Donald McKay, by Donald Gunn Ross III.

Links

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⛵ Historical Focus

• Clipper Ships: Fast, elegant sailing vessels that dramatically shortened the voyage from England to Australia—from four months to just over two.
• Migration Boom: These ships carried tens of thousands of eager migrants, many drawn by the Australian gold rush, helping shape the country’s demographic and economic future.
• Transformation: The book frames the clipper era as a turning point, likening these vessels to the “jet airlines of their day” Goodreads Historic Naval Fiction.

🌊 Storytelling Style

• Adventure & Drama: Opens aboard a clipper racing across the Southern Ocean, filled with passengers chasing fortune in Melbourne.
• Colorful Characters: Features daring captains like Englishman “Bully” Forbes and American “Bully” Waterman, known for pushing their ships to the limit.
• Shipwrecks & Peril: Mundle doesn’t shy away from the darker side—many vessels met tragic ends, adding tension and realism to the maritime saga Goodreads Historic Naval Fiction.

📚 Broader Themes

• National Identity: Explores how maritime migration helped forge Australia’s character and culture.
• Technological Innovation: Highlights the engineering and navigational feats that made clippers so revolutionary.
• Human Resilience: Celebrates the courage of migrants and sailors alike, navigating treacherous seas in pursuit of new lives.

Rob Mundle blends historical research with vivid storytelling, offering readers a gripping account of one of the world’s great migration movements and the ships that made it possible.

Sources: Goodreads Historic Naval Fiction.