The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.
SWS is a not-for-profit enterprise, created for and by the traditional maritime community. If you read and enjoy it, consider supporting us financially.
Click Here to Donate
Kangaroo Island volunteers' 'mad dream' to rebuild 19th-century US sailing ship
The original INDEPENDENCE was built in only five months by the ship's carpenter and some of the crew of a larger boat, the Union. The Union's captain Isaac Pendleton had learned from French explorer Nicholas Baudin of the existence of a large island, south of the South Australian mainland, where seals and other wildlife were plentiful.