A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schoonerFlinders, Matthew
History
A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner
Flinders, Matthew
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Voyages and travels
From two supplements of the sun's meridian altitude to the north, the
_latitude_ of our anchorage would be 10° 34' 12"; but the supplements
observed on the 31st having given 1' 14" too far south, the correct
latitude is taken to be 10° 32' 58". The _longitude_ from nine sets of
distances of the sun west of the moon, was 142° 23'; but by the corrected
time keeper, which I prefer, it was 142° 10½' east. To compare this
longitude with that of captain Cook, it must be reduced to some point
distinctly laid down by him, and I take Booby Island, which was in sight.
According to that navigator, Booby Isle is in 140° 38' east (Hawkesworth,
III, 214); whereas I made it to lie in 141° 57', or 1° 19' further east,
a difference which certainly appears very extraordinary; but it is still
more so, that the island should be laid down 63' of longitude to the west
of the high, flat-topped York Isle, instead Of 43' or 44'. To show that
the longitude by my time keeper was not much, if any thing too great, I
have to observe, that in captain Bligh's manuscript chart of 1792, Mount
Augustus is laid down from his time keepers in 142° 14'; and the mean of
his lunar observations, taken eight days before and six days afterward,
was 16' _more east_. My time keeper now placed Mount Augustus in 142°
18', or only 4' more east than captain Bligh's chart, consequently in 12'
less than by his lunar observations; by which quantity it was also less
than the nine sets of distances now taken by lieutenant Flinders.
No run of tide was perceptible at the anchorage, from eight in the
morning to two p.m.; but it then set westward, and continued so to do
until four next morning, and was then running one knot and a half. The
time of high water appeared by the soundings, to be nearly as they gave
it at Wednesday Island.
WEDNESDAY 3 NOVEMBER 1802
In the morning of the 3rd, the wind was moderate at E. S. E., and we made
sail to get in with the main land to the south of the Prince of Wales'
Islands. In hauling round the dry part of the shoal, we fell into 3
fathoms, and were obliged to steer round off; nor was it until after many
attempts, and running four or five miles further to the south-westward,
that the shoal would allow us to steer a southern course. At 8h 45',
being then in 5 fathoms,
Booby Isle bore, N. 56° W.
Cape Cornwall, S. 58 E.
Station on Good's Island, dist. 11 miles N. 54½ E.
From hence we carried 6 to 7 fathoms until past ten, and afterwards
irregular soundings between 3 and 9 fathoms, to noon; the latitude from a
supplement to the north, with the same correction as applied on the 2nd,
was then 10° 50' 44", and the bearings of the land were these;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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