The treacherous and beautiful Coral Sea is the background for this story of the nineteenth century adventurers on perilous voyages into its waters in search of the bêche-de-mer and pearl shell; of the savage chiefs who ruled its islands; of the seamen who charted it; of the explorers struggling up the Queensland coast; a tale of the taming of the wilderness and its people.

...as in all Idriess books, there is always something good somewhere; and here it is the two chapters on Jemmy the Hook, who had had both hands chopped off by mutinous islander-crews, and who returned with iron hooks instead of hands to take a gruesome vengeance on yet another mutinous crew; it is a story which calls all the Idriess descriptive powers into play, and the reader avid of blood-and-guts can be assured of exactly that. - The Bulletin, 1957

As so often in Australian letters, an initial fall into obscurity and harsh judgments of the literary establishment serve as good indicators of a writer's pre-eminence. - Nicholas Rothwell, The Australian, 2017