1. Accidents
2. Adoption
3. Book design
4. Bravery
5. Cultural diversity
6. Discrimination
7. Emotions
8. Historical fiction
9. History
10. Racism
11. Visual literacy

On 28 February 1890, the British East India passenger ship RMS Quetta sank off the Far North Queensland coast. Over one hundred and fifty men, women and children lost their lives. One of the survivors was an unidentified baby girl rescued by the ship’s nineteen-year-old steward. This rescue was the catalyst for one of the strangest child custody cases ever to occur in a Queensland court. It was strange because there were two applicants to adopt the child, one Ceylonese born Mutassa Clark, the ship’s steward who had rescued her and the other, Captain Edmund Brown, retired master of a Torres Strait pilot vessel.

The story revolves around the adoption case and although it is a fictionalized account it reflects the attitudes and opinions that existed at that time. Both applicants are cross examined but the questioning of Mutassa Clark is more robust and impatient in its tone. The magistrate’s decision was as the book’s tone anticipates, breaking the hearts of both Mutassa and the child.

Illustrator Bruce Whatley’s artwork and book design significantly adds to the drama and tension of the story. The text is superimposed in textures panels over contrasting scenes from the cream and brown colours of the courtroom and depictions in blue grey of the sea and the rescue. The book’s front cover artwork shows the sinking of RMS Quetta and is possibly based on the image ‘Foundering of the Quetta (ship)’ held by the State Library of Queensland.

The story is based on historical fact and at the end of the book are details of what happened to the Mutassa Clark and to the child who, though given an adopted name, would simply forever be known as ‘Quetta.’

1. Queensland State Archives 8 December 2016 ‘The Sinking of the S.S. Quetta’ https://blogs.archives.qld.gov.au/2016/12/08/the-sinking-of-the-s-s-quetta/
2. State Library of Queensland Digital image ‘Foundering of the Quetta (ship)’ https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE268575
3. Mike Ball Dive Expeditions Australia ‘Quetta Brown’ by Captain Trevor Jackson https://www.mikeball.com/quetta-brown/
4. Tales from the Quarterdeck 25 February 2022 ‘The tragic loss of the RMS Quetta’ https://talesfromthequarterdeck.com/2022/02/25/the-loss-of-rms-quetta/
5. State Library of Queensland Blog 17 August 2017 ‘Queensland Places - Thursday Island - E.L. Brown, General Importer and Merchant https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/queensland-places-thursday-island-el-brown-general-importer-and-merchant
6. Walkabout 34 (9): 1 September 1968. A letter from a Monsignor O’Meara concerning a Quetta Brown with conflicting information to that contained in the end of the book https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-752174125/view?sectionId=nla.obj-755665262&partId=nla.obj-752192729#page/n7/mode/1up