Painting the Islands Vermilion: Archibald Watson and the Brig Carl.

Account of the intriguing career of an extraordinary Australian doctor, Archibald Watson, the first Elder Professor of Anatomy at the University of Adelaide (1885–1920), who was involved in piracy and “blackbirding” or slave-trading in the 1800s. Archibald Watson, a celebrated Australian surgeon, anatomist and professor, had as a younger man sailed on the notorious brig ‘Carl’ on her South Seas voyage of 1871-2 recruiting labour for Australian plantations (a process known as ‘blackbirding’ – kidnapping native islanders). To escape imprisonment, he fled to Europe, where he became a man of medicine. First Edition. pp. 279 illsts #0121/201021 FINE