This is a work of fiction that is based on the true story of the wreck of the barque, Peruvian and its aftermath, and many of the events described actually took place.

The Peruvian was lost in a gale off the east coast of Australia in February 1846. When it was found wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef several months later there was evidence that some of the passengers and crew may have constructed a raft and abandoned ship. Nothing further was heard, however, and it was assumed all on board had perished.

A shipping agent based in Sydney in the Colony of New South Wales, Clem Ross, had contracted a young sailor James Murrells, (also known as Jimmy Morrill) for the voyage, and he became obsessed with the possibility that Jimmy, and perhaps others may have survived. Seventeen years later a man claiming to be a sailor from the Peruvian made contact with shepherds at an outstation on the Burdekin River near Cleveland Bay in North Queensland telling the astonished men that he had been living with an Australian Aboriginal tribe. The man was Jimmy Morrill and this is his story.