What were they thinking?
The colony was the brainchild of Charles Enderby, scion of a British family with long links to shipping, whaling and exploring.
In 1806 an Enderby ship, captained by Abraham Bristow, was the first European vessel to visit the island.
Charles Enderby foresaw the island community as a base for his Southern Whale Fishery Company and one that would have an agricultural base to sustain both itself and ships using the Great Circle route from Australia to Cape Horn.
Within three years, it was evident these three premises were false.
The whale population was already in decline, with ships returning from voyages of up to a year with few whales.
Anyone who has visited the windswept islands and cast a modern eye on the soil and vegetation would realise there would be few places less suited for agriculture.
And the advent of steamships would mean the number of passing ships would ultimately decline.
Historian Conon Fraser, who died shortly before the book's release, had a long association with the islands, initially as director of a National Film Unit documentary.
His research was thorough, and he gives a detailed account of life on the islands and the rise and fall of settlement, drawing heavily on diaries of company officials William Mackworth and William Munce.
He gives a good analysis of the company's financial demise, including the conflict between Enderby and commissioners sent by the company to remove him from his post and try to cut the haemorrhage of funds.
Despite the level of detail, the book remains readable.
Useful maps and many historic illustrations add to the text, although several of the author's contemporary photographs seem to have only a tenuous link to the text.
• David Barnes is a Dunedin writer who has visited the Auckland Islands.
