January. February 97In 1797 the crew set out from Calcutta, India, bound for the new
colony at Port Jackson. They took a circuitous route, across the
Indian Ocean and around south-western Australia, before grounding
at Preservation Island three months later. Seventeen survivors, led
by chief mate Hugh Thompson, then attempted an 800km journey,
by rowboat and foot, to Sydney to summon help.
A historic watercolour of the camp of the L’ U r a n i e shipwreck
survivors at the Falkland Islands in 1820 (above), gives an indication
of what the Preservation Island camp might have been like. A
2002 excavation (left ) of the site of the Sydney Cove survivors’ camp.