Dear all,

The 155th anniversary of the Netherby shipwreck on Kings Island will be on the 14th July 2021. It was five years ago that many descendants met on Kings Island to reflect about this extra ordinary event when no lives were lost.

An extensive and well-researched book about The Netherby is in preparation by Helen Vivian, Melbourne, which will most likely be published by the University of Melbourne. We will share the details on this blog once Vivian's book is available.

She asked for contributions and photographs of the people who were on board.

Together with other descendants of Captain William Townsend, we pulled a story together about how the family fared after the disaster and found a number of pictures. We have no idea which parts will feature in Vivian's book, however, should you be interested to get a copy of our contribution only, send me a personal email to thomas@helmer.com with details of your link to the descendants.

Best wishes, Thomas Helmer