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 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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