The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson: With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James GrantLee, Ida
History
The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson: With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant
Lee, Ida
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Grant, James, 1771 or 2-1833; Lady Nelson (Ship)
On January 25th all the settlers ordered to embark in the Lady Nelson
went on board, and on Monday, 30th, in company with the Ocean, conveying
Colonel Collins, she made sail out of Port Phillip Bay.* (* See
Knopwood's Diary, edited by J. Shillinglaw, Melbourne. The Reverend R.
Knopwood was the Chaplain of Collins' establishment.) After a passage of
ten days, the brig anchored in Risdon Cove, the site of Bowen's
settlement, the Ocean arriving a few days later. Colonel Collins did not
think Risdon the most eligible spot for the purpose of a settlement, and
he encamped "on the banks of a small but apparently constant stream,
which empties itself into the second cove below Stainforth's Cove."
Collins named this place Sullivan's Cove,* (* After Mr. John Sullivan,
Permanent Under Secretary for the Colonies.) "the settlement at Risdon
remaining in every respect as he found it until Governor King's pleasure
is known."* (* Brown's manuscript letter to Paterson.)
On Tuesday, March 6th, 1804, the Lady Nelson left the Derwent on her
return voyage to Sydney. By that time all the Port Phillip settlers and
half the establishment had arrived in Tasmania, and the Ocean was about
to put to sea again in order to convey the stores and stock remaining at
Port Phillip to Sullivan's Cove. Collins's settlement at this place, and
the original colony at Risdon, were then fast becoming united. A little
later, Bowen's settlement was moved, by Governor King's orders, down the
river to Sullivan's Cove and the two establishments really became one,
Colonel Collins retaining for it the name of Hobart, and Bowen with his
officials returned to Sydney.*
(* Sydney Gazette, August 26th, 1804. On Friday arrived the Ocean Captain
Mertho, from the Derwent with Lieutenant Bowen, Commandant of the
settlement at Risdon Cove, which has become part of Lieutenant Governor
Collins' settlement, being only six miles from Sullivan's Cove. In the
same ship came Lieutenant Moore with a detachment of the New South Wales
Corps on duty at Risdon, Mr. Jacob Mountgarrett, surgeon, Mr. Brown,
naturalist, and several persons who composed the settlement. The Ocean
arrived at Sullivan's Cove from her second voyage to Port Phillip on June
25th after a tempestuous voyage of 32 days in which most of the stock for
the colony was lost.
Lieutenant Bowen was on his way from Sydney to the Derwent at the time of
Collins' arrival in Tasmania. He seems only to have voyaged as far as
Port Dalrymple in the Integrity for he returned to the Derwent in the
Pilgrim (Sydney Gazette, April 22nd, 1804). Eventually he came, as stated
above, to Sydney in the Ocean. (See Historical Records of New South Wales
volume 5 pages 451 and 676.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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