Port Essington: The British in North Australia 1838-49

For many of the Royal Marines sent to Port Essington, life was a living hell of malaria, scurvy, termites, shipwrecks, cyclones, boredom, isolation and death. For one man, it was the 'most useless, ill-managed hold in Her Majesty's dominions' which deserved 'all the abuse that has ever been heaped upon it'.
But it wasn't always so: in the beginning, French visitors shared their best Bordeaux wines and partied at Government House; small boats raced in regattas across the harbour; men played ...