Voyage of the Shuckenoor

An historic novel threaded with love, truth and innocence lost.


An adventure story depicting the fate of women on the tall ships of the 19th Century.


Sailing from Queensland to Melanesia in 1903, 17 year-old Hilda Kofke accompanies her beloved father, Gustave, a government officer on his final ‘labour recruiting’ voyage through the South Seas.


Far from the pacifist and champion of Pacific islanders’ rights she believed him to be, Hilda learns that her father was once ‘the butcher of New Guinea’ who believed in the ‘perfect logic’ of the pre-emptive strike. 




Erica Bell was born and grew up on the islands of New Guinea: New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago and Misima in the Louisiade Archipelago. As a child she could understand two of the hundreds of languages of New Guinea.

As an adult she lived in Queensland, in Moreton Bay across the water from Peel Island where she often anchored her sailing boat. She gained a PhD in Australian poetry and language theory from Queensland University.

In 2002 she went to live in America where this book was written. 

She writes now on the island of Tasmania where she also works as a health sciences researcher. She has published widely in health and medical journals; however, The Voyage of the Shuckenoor is her first novel.