When Dick and jack Idriess went aboard the Nancy Bell at Cooktown - they thought they were signing on for a trochus-fishing expedition, would earn some money, and go back to gold prospecting. Cross-eyed Joe, a wily Filipino skipper was after something more valuable than trochus. With the appearance of the Japanese manned black lugger the boys find themselves in strategies, schemes and escapes against the vivid background of Lizard Island and the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. First published in 1948, The Opium Smugglers is entirely based on his travels with mate Dick Welch along the Queensland coast prior to World War 1.