Saluting The Amaryllis: Auckland To Dartmouth
Memoir Australian Literature Biography Travel Writing Maritime History Adventure Travel Transportation Nautical Non-Fiction
Clive Tadgell’s Saluting The Amaryllis: Auckland To Dartmouth is the hard-cover, illustrated memoir every Australian boating and travel reader has been hunting for since its quiet 2016 release. Printed in Melbourne by Wallington House and now scarce in nice condition, this first-edition biography follows the author and his beloved ketch Amaryllis on a 12,000-nautical-mile pilgrimage from New Zealand’s Waitematā Harbour back to the English port where the 36-foot Huon-pine classic was born. Along the way Tadgell drops anchor in Tonga’s coral lagoons, threads the Panama Canal, trades yarns with Caribbean cruisers, and outruns Biscay gales—each leg captured in vivid diary-style prose and more than 80 of the author’s own on-board sketches and coastal water-colours. The result is a transportive blend of autobiography, cruising guide and cultural snapshot that transports arm-chair sailors far beyond the usual yacht-club log.
What sets this copy apart is its very-good, collector-grade state: tight unbumped boards, bright gilt titling, pristine illustrated end-papers and not a single dog-eared page—only a neat gift inscription on the front flyleaf hints at its previous life. For devotees of Australian maritime writing, it fills the gap between Alan Lucas’s cruising guides and the late Nancy Knudsen’s ocean yarns, while vintage-boat enthusiasts will relish the detailed maintenance lore of a 1936 Tasmanian huon-pine classic still earning her keep. Transportation, travel-writing and biography collectors alike list Saluting The Amaryllis among the most elusive contemporary Australian nautical titles, making a clean first printing increasingly hard to source.
Whether you’re hunting a gift for a blue-water dreamer, sourcing authoritative regional sailing history, or adding a key title to an Australiana or transportation library, this handsome hard-cover delivers story, art and reference in one package—ready to shelve or set on the chart table without the usual ex-library stamps, sun-fading or jacket tears found online.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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