The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee
page 130 of 327 (39%)
page 130 of 327 (39%)
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half-past the point of entrance bore north-east by east 4 miles and a
remarkably high nob of land (if not an island) west-north-west 4 or 5 miles, by noon the entrance north-east by west 9 or 10 miles. ... Wednesday, March 24th. Fine weather though inclined to calm. At half-past 3 P.M. South Head bore south-south-west the North distant 4 or 5 miles. At 4 P.M. passed Bradley's Head, at 6 passed Garden Island and by half-past 6 P.M. came to an anchor in Sydney Cove with the best bower, moored with the kedge. The Commander waited on His Excellency the Governor and Commander-in-Chief." Murray's voyage ended on March 24th, and on the same day he waited on Governor King at Sydney, with the news that his orders had been carried out. The Governor must have been greatly pleased, and the more so because only a month later the French ship Naturaliste put into Port Jackson.* (* The French ships Geographe and Naturaliste had left France in October 1800 on a voyage of discovery.) Hamelin, who commanded her, was, however, in sore straits. He had parted from Commodore Baudin in a gale off Van Dieman's Land and had traversed the whole of Bass Strait without meeting the Geographe, his boats having visited Western Port* only a month after Murray had left there. (* French Island preserves the memory of their visit, but Murray's Chart shows that the English (contrary to Peron's assertions) knew that this island was separated from the mainland before the coming of the French.) Finding his provisions exhausted, in his extremity the French Commander, although he knew that France and England were at war, steered to Sydney. The English, we are told, received him with noble and large-minded (grande et Loyale) liberality, and the sick French sailors were received at the Government Hospital. Hamelin was |
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