The Australian press of the day consisted of the _Sydney Gazette_, then in its first year of existence, and sometimes printed on odd scraps of wrapping paper by reason of the shortness of other material, and this paper, speaking of the _Cumberland_, says, "She is a very good sea-boat, and in every way capable of carrying enough water and provisions for Captain Flinders and the officers and nine men who are appointed to navigate the first vessel built in the colony to England." Nevertheless there were many naval men who thought the venture dangerous in the extreme, and sought to dissuade Flinders from undertaking it. But his was no timorous nature--"a small craft, 'tis true," he said laughingly, "but mine own." With all papers necessary to prove his identity and his dearly-loved journals and charts on board, Flinders bade farewell to his trusty friend King, and on September 21st, 1803, the three vessels, the lumbering _Rolla_ and the two midgets of schooners, put to sea. Before midnight, just after leaving Port Jackson, the three ships were flying before a south-easterly gale, and the _Cumberland_ was reduced to a close-reefed mainsail and jib, and she was so exceedingly crank that Flinders considered it was not safe to run her even in a double-reefed topsail breeze. Then, in spite of her recent repairs, she leaked like a basket, and after an hour and a half's cessation from pumping the water was awash on the cabin floor. But nevertheless she was more weatherly than either the _Rolla_ or _Francis_, for in working to windward at night-time Flinders would have to run down four miles or so in the morning to join them, although they carried all the sail they possibly could. A fortnight later they arrived at Wreck Reef, and when Flinders sent King an account of the trip down, he gave the Governor some idea of the discomforts experienced. He wrote in a humorous vein:-- "Of all the filthy little things I ever saw, this schooner, for bugs, lice, fleas, weevils, mosquitos, cockroaches, large and small, and mice, rises superior to them all.... I have never stripped myself before the last two nights, but usually slept upon the lee locker with my clothes on.... I believe that I, as well as my clothes, must undergo a good boiling in the large kettle." In the evening of the 7th October the three vessels anchored under the lee of Wreck Island, to the great joy of its tenants, and as soon as Flinders landed on the bank they gave him three cheers and fired a salute from the carronades saved from the wreck. The _Porpoise_ still held together, and the castaways had, during Flinders' absence, built a boat of 20 tons, which they had rigged as a schooner and named the _Resource_, and on that very day some of them were out sailing her on her trial trip. This little vessel Flinders sent to King as some compensation for the _Cumberland_.