Port Essington, and Melville Island. Precisely how many voyages she made
as a pioneer will probably never be known. The ship, at least, played
many parts: now acting as King's messenger and carrying despatches from
the Governor to Norfolk Island; now fetching grain grown at the
Hawkesbury, or coals from Newcastle for the use of the increasing
population at Sydney; and at another time carrying troops and settlers to
the far distant north. She made other memorable voyages; for example,
when she conveyed bricks burnt in Sydney brick kilns to Tasmania and to
New Zealand, in order to build homes for the first white settlers in
those lands. She helped also to establish Lieutenant Bowen's colony at
Risdon. On that occasion we read that the little ship lent the colony a
bell and half a barrel of gunpowder. The logbooks do not record to what
use the bell was put, but whether it served as a timekeeper or to call
the people to worship, it was doubtless highly valued by the early
Tasmanian colonists.

At the time of her sailing to Australia the Lady Nelson was a new ship of
60 tons. She was built at Deptford in 1799, and differed from other
exploring vessels in having a centre-board keel. This was the invention
of Captain John Schanck, R.N., who believed that ships so constructed
"would sail faster, steer easier, tack and wear quicker and in less
room." He had submitted his design to the Admiralty in 1783, and so well
was it thought of that two similar boats had been built for the Navy, one
with a centre-board and one without, in order that a trial might be made.
The result was so successful that, besides the Cynthia sloop and Trial
revenue cutter, other vessels were constructed on the new plan, among
them the Lady Nelson. She was chosen for exploration because her three
sliding centre-boards enabled her draught to be lessened in shallow
waters, for when her sliding keels were up she drew no more than six
feet.