Governor Hunter & His First Fleet Sketchbook
A Steady Hand is a new perspective that traces the extraordinary life of John Hunter, First Fleet sea captain, colonial governor and artist, complemented by faithful, full-colour reproductions of every painting in John Hunter’s First Fleet sketchbook.
Throughout the years of the First Fleet, Hunter kept a sketchbook. Its pages contained some of the earliest artistic impressions of birds, flowers and fishes and people found in and around Sydney, Norfolk and Lord Howe islands.
A Steady Hand magnificently illustrates these sketches and also shares a wonderful insight into Hunters early life in Scotland and at sea, his love of music and mathematics and his perseverance in the face of many hardships.
Born in Leith, Scotland, in 1737, John Hunter joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16. During the American War of Independence, he was chosen by Admiral Lord Howe to be master of the flagship Eagle. Hunter’s painstaking survey of the Delaware River, undertaken at risk of his life, was an important contribution to the successful British capture of Philadelphia in 1777.
In 1786 Hunter was promoted to the rank of captain of HMS Sirius of the First Fleet. The Sirius was wrecked on Norfolk Island in 1790. Though all the people of The Sirius survived, the loss of the ship was a devastating blow to the new colony. Hunter and his men were marooned on the island, suffering near-starvation, for 11 months. Their eventual safe return to England in 1792, through the partly-charted south-east Asian seas on an unseaworthy hired Dutch vessel, was testimony to Hunter’s highly skilled seamanship.
John Hunter returned to New South Wales in 1795 as the colony’s second governor. In the period between Governor Phillip’s departure and Hunter’s arrival, the officers of the New South Wales Corps had become the colony’s main land owners. They had monopolised trade and encouraged the use of spirits as currency. For five years, Hunter fought a steady but largely unsuccessful battle with the monopolists. He was recalled to England where, interpreting official silence as disgrace, he published an emotional defence of his actions as governor. A decision to pay him the level of pension that indicated satisfaction with his governorship and some brief but complimentary words by the Duke of Portland were the first steps in the restoration of his reputation. By his death in 1821 he was an Admiral and was regarded as a respected adviser on colonial affairs.
A Steady Hand provides not only a rare insight into the private life of a major colonial figure but illustrates one of the most important items we have from the First Fleet era. Written by Linda Groom who was Curator of Pictures at the National Library of Australia and is the author of First Fleet Artist: George Raper’s Birds and Plants of Australia. During her career at the National Library, her love of the Australian environment developed into a fascination with the way early European artists responded to the animals and plants of Australia
A Steady Hand – Governor Hunter & His First Fleet Sketchbook by Linda Groom
National Library of Australia. Book launch: March 1, 2012. $49.95
Distribution: NewSouth Books
