What is George Bass?
{{Infobox person | name = George Bass | image = George Bass engraving.png | alt = | caption = Engraving of Bass from ''The Naval Pioneers of Australia'' by Louis Becke and Walter Jeffery, 1899 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1771|01|30|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Sleaford]], [[Lincolnshire]], England | disappeared_date = {{Disappeared date and age|1803|2|5|1771|1|30|df=y}} <!-- {{Disappeared date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (disappeared date then birth date) --> | disappeared_place = Last seen before leaving [[Port Jackson]], New South Wales, Australia | disappeared_status = | nationality = British | other_names = | occupation = Ship's surgeon and explorer | known_for = | spouse = Elizabeth Waterhouse }} '''George Bass''' (30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of [[Australia]]. == Early years == Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, near [[Sleaford]], [[Lincolnshire]]. His father, George, was a [[Tenant farming|tenant farmer]], George Bass, and his mother a local beauty named Sarah (née Newman).<ref>Estensen, Miriam. ''The Life of George Bass: Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment'', page 1. Published by Allen & Unwin, 2005. {{ISBN|1-74114-130-3}}.</ref> His father died in 1777. He went to Boston Grammar School and later studied medicine at the hospital in [[Boston, Lincolnshire]]. At the age of 18, he was accepted in London as a member of the Company of Surgeons, and in 1794 he joined the [[Royal Navy]] as a surgeon. He arrived in [[Sydney]] in [[New South Wales]] on [[HMS Reliance (1793)|HMS ''Reliance'']] on 7 September 1795.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Captain_Matthew_Flinders,_R.N.|title=The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN|last=Scott|first=Ernest|publisher=Angus & Robertson|year=1914|location=Sydney|page=100}}</ref> Also on the voyage were [[Matthew Flinders]], [[John Hunter]], [[Bennelong]], and his s