Matilda

In Biggles in Australia, the Matilda was a lugger owned by Boller, a member of von Stalhein's espionage ring in Australia. Boller had bought the ship from her former owner, one Greeky Apergoulos. The ship was used to ferry people and supplies up tothe spy ring's headquarters at Daly Flats. It was meant to rendezvous with the See Taube to take on von Stalhein and his men but the later was wrecked in a tropical cyclone. Towards the end of the book, the Matilda was used to transport von Stalhein to Daly Flats from Darwin. On his arrival there, he must have heard Ginger's warning that the aborigines at the station were in revolt and must have retreated and departed in the ship. The Matilda was not seen again. Following the mopping up of the spy ring at Daly Flats, the arrival of severe tropical storms frustrated efforts to locate the escaping lugger. Some wreckage found near the Melville Islands later was believed to be that of the Matilda but that was never proven.