



Produced by Sue Asscher




THE LOGBOOKS OF
THE LADY NELSON

WITH THE JOURNAL OF HER FIRST COMMANDER
LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT, R.N.

BY

IDA LEE, F.R.G.S.
(MRS. CHARLES BRUCE MARRIOTT.)

AUTHOR OF:
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH TO AUSTRALIA,
[and]
COMMODORE SIR JOHN HAYES, HIS VOYAGE AND LIFE.

WITH SIXTEEN CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE ORIGINALS
IN THE ADMIRALTY LIBRARY.


GRAFTON & CO.
69 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
LONDON. W.C.


First Published in 1915.


TO THE MEMORY OF MY GRANDFATHER,
WILLIAM LEE,
ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S PIONEERS.





PREFACE.


The objects for which the Lady Nelson's voyages were undertaken render
her logbooks of more than ordinary interest. She was essentially an
Australian discovery ship and during her successive commissions she was
employed exclusively in Australian waters. The number of voyages that she
made will perhaps never be accurately known, but her logbooks in
existence testify to the important missions that she accomplished. The
most notable are those which record early discoveries in Victoria: the
exploration of the Queensland coast: the surveys of King Island and the
Kent Group: the visits to New Zealand and the founding of settlements at
Hobart, Port Dalrymple, and Melville Island. Seldom can the logbooks of a
single ship show such a record. Their publication seemed very necessary,
for the handwriting on the pages of some of them is so faded that it is
already difficult to decipher, and apparently only the story of Grant's
voyages and the extracts from Murray's log published by Labilliere in the
Early History of Victoria have ever before been published. In
transcription I have somewhat modernized the spelling where old or
incorrect forms tended to obscure the sense, and omitted repetitions, as
it would have been impossible to include within the limits of one volume
the whole of the contents of the logbooks. The story of the Lady Nelson
as told by Grant has in places been paraphrased, for he sometimes writes
it in diary form under date headings and at others he inserts the date in
the narrative. The entries from the logbooks of Murray, Curtoys and
Symons, in the Public Record Office, with such omissions as I have
specified, are printed verbatim.

Murray's charts now published are distinctly valuable, as in the fourth
volume of the Historical Records of New South Wales, where they should be
found, it is stated that they are "unfortunately missing."

On my inquiring at the Admiralty, Mr. Perrin, the Librarian, to whom my
cordial thanks are due, made a special search and was fortunate enough to
discover them. Thus, after a long separation, Murray's charts and his
journal are united again in this volume. Perhaps the most important
chart, and the one which should appeal especially to the people of
Victoria, is that of Port Phillip showing the track of the Lady Nelson's
boat when the brig entered the bay for the first time. Murray's log
telling of this discovery ends on March 24th, 1802. In writing later to
the Duke of Portland, Governor King says: "The Lady Nelson's return just
before I closed my letters enabled me to transmit Acting-Lieutenant
Murray's log copies of the discoveries of King Island and Port Phillip.
These important discoveries, being combined with the chart of former
surveys, I hope will convince your Grace that that highly useful vessel
the Lady Nelson has not been idle under my direction." The charts were
sent home in charge of Lieutenant Mackellar, who sailed in the ship
Caroline on March 30th, 1802, six days after the Lady Nelson's return.
Duplicates were forwarded by the Speedy, which left Sydney in June, but a
comparison of those at the Admiralty shows that King added nothing
further to this second series.

My thanks are also due to Lieutenant Bell, R.N., whose researches have
enabled me to publish the charts of the Queensland coast. These old
charts cannot fail to interest students of Australian history. It is
possible that they do not include all that were sent home at first, nor
are the Lady Nelson's logbooks complete; those however of Grant and
Murray, Curtoys and Symons, give us the story of the work carried out by
those energetic seamen. They are writings worthy of being more widely
known, for they are records left by men who sailed uncharted seas along
unknown coasts in days which will not come again--men who have helped to
give to later generations a spacious continent with a limitless horizon.

IDA LEE.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER 1.

THE LADY NELSON BUILT WITH CENTREBOARDS.
HER VOYAGE TO SYDNEY UNDER JAMES GRANT.
THE FIRST SHIP TO PASS THROUGH BASS STRAIT.


CHAPTER 2.

RETURNS TO EXPLORE THE STRAIT.
HER VISITS TO JERVIS BAY AND TO WESTERN PORT IN 1801.


CHAPTER 3.

COLONEL PATERSON AND LIEUTENANT GRANT SURVEY HUNTER RIVER.


CHAPTER 4.

MURRAY APPOINTED COMMANDER OF THE LADY NELSON.
HIS VOYAGE TO NORFOLK ISLAND.


CHAPTER 5.

MURRAY'S EXPLORATION OF BASS STRAIT.


CHAPTER 6.

DISCOVERY OF PORT PHILLIP.


CHAPTER 7.

THE LADY NELSON IN COMPANY WITH H.M.S. INVESTIGATOR EXAMINES THE
NORTH-EASTERN SHORES OF AUSTRALIA.


CHAPTER 8.

THE FRENCH SHIPS IN BASS STRAIT.
THE FOUNDING OF HOBART.


CHAPTER 9.

SYMONS SUCCEEDS CURTOYS AS COMMANDER OF THE LADY NELSON.
HIS VOYAGES TO PORT PHILLIP, TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND.


CHAPTER 10.

THE LADY NELSON IN TASMANIA.
THE FOUNDING OF PORT DALRYMPLE.


CHAPTER 11.

THE ESTRAMINA IS BROUGHT TO SYDNEY.
THE LADY NELSON VISITS NORFOLK ISLAND AND PORT DALRYMPLE.


CHAPTER 12.

TIPPAHEE AND HIS FOUR SONS ARE CONVEYED TO NEW ZEALAND IN THE LADY
NELSON.


CHAPTER 13.

THE LADY NELSON ACCOMPANIES H.M.S. TAMAR TO MELVILLE ISLAND.


CHAPTER 14.

THE LOSS OF THE LADY NELSON.


APPENDIX.


INDEX.


ILLUSTRATIONS.


1. THE LADY NELSON. From a painting in the possession of the Victorian
Government.


2. LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT'S CHART OF THE AUSTRALIAN COAST.


[Jas Grant autograph facsimile.]


3. EYE-SKETCH OF THE LADY NELSON'S TRACK ON HER FIRST VOYAGE THROUGH BASS
STRAIT. Drawn by Governor King. Writing of this chart, he says that the
longitude in which Lieutenant Grant placed Cape Otway was about a degree
and a half in error. He also made the land to trend away on the west side
of Cape Otway to a deep bay, which he named Portland Bay. An examination
of modern maps will show that the name Portland Bay has been retained for
a bay to the westward of Grant's Portland Bay, which is now called
Armstrong Bay.

Chart of the track of His Majesty's Armoured Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson
Lieutenant James Grant Commander. From Bass's Straits between New Holland
and Van Diemen's Land on her passage from England to Port Jackson. By
Order of His Grace The Duke of Portland. In December 1800.


4. CHART OF WESTERN PORT SURVEYED BY ENSIGN BARRALLIER IN 1801.


5. CHART OF BASS STRAIT SHOWING THE DISCOVERIES MADE BETWEEN SEPTEMBER
1800 AND MARCH 1802. Drawn by Ensign Barrallier, New South Wales Corps,
under the direction of Captain P.G. King, Governor of New South Wales."
This chart is generally referred to as "Barrallier's Combined Chart."
King doubtless alludes to it when writing to the Duke of Portland in May
1802. See Historical Records of New South Wales volume 4 page 761.)


(CHART OF KING'S ISLAND IN BASS'S STRAIT. This earliest chart of King
Island was drawn by Alexander Dalrymple from a sketch made by Flinders of
Murray's original chart. Flinders added to it the west coast unseen by
Murray, though it had been sighted by both Black and Buyers. The details
given by Flinders were supplied by William Campbell, master of the
Harrington, who, in March 1802, found a quantity of wreckage there.
Nothing remained to show the name of the lost vessel, nor was any clue
subsequently discovered by which she could be identified. The Harrington
lay at anchor at New Year's Isles for over two months, but could not
trace the nationality of the vessel or her crew except in the language of
the Harrington's captain, "one dead English cat." See Historical Records
of New South Wales volume 4 page 780.)


6. THE LADY NELSON AND THE FRANCIS SCHOONER ENTERING HUNTER RIVER.


7. COAL HARBOUR (NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES), SURVEYED BY ENSIGN
BARRALLIER IN 1801.

Coal Harbour and Rivers on the Coast of New South Wales. Surveyed by
Ensign Barrallier, in His Majesty's Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson:
Lieutenant James Grant Commander. In June and July 1801, by Order of
Governor King.

High Water Full and Change in the Harbour 9 hours 45 minutes. Rises 6
feet.

Remarks on Hunter's River: The entrance of Hunter's River is in latitude
32 degrees 57 minutes south, distinguishable by an Island on the
south-east side of its entrance which in coming from the northward
appears like a castle, being perpendicular on the south-east side and 203
feet high: the north side is steep and covered with grass. It is the
northernmost high land from Sydney to the Heads of Port Stephens from
which it lies north-east 6 leagues. The intermediate space being a sandy
beach. The tides both in the harbour and entrance runs very strong, and
in some places not less than four miles an hour and sometimes from four
to five. The ebb in general is much stronger than the flood: 9 3/4 hours
in the harbour makes high water full and change, and rises six feet
perpendicular where the Lady Nelson anchored, and four feet when she was
higher up the river. In the harbour there is good shelter