8vo. xi, [1], 355pp. With a photographic frontispiece and 19 further photographic plates. Original publisher's green cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, with original publisher's pictorial dust-wrapper. A trifle rubbed, dust-wrapper price-clipped, chipped and worn at edges. Light spotting to edges, a touch of staining to front endpapers. With a loosely inserted autographed telegram letter from the author to Captain G. E. Parkes.

The first edition of a detailed list of convict transports to the Australian colonies between 1787 and 1868, compiled by New Zealand-born Australian maritime historian Charles Bateson (1903-1974). By far the most successful of Bateson's works, the list is considered the standard reference work in its field to this day.

This copy contains a signed telegram from the author to Captain G. E. Parkes, of Cornwall, apparently responding to the latter's letter of compliments on the work; Bateson's response explains his process in cataloguing the vessels within, expressing gratitude for Parkes' interest in Australian maritime history.