The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee
page 36 of 327 (11%)
page 36 of 327 (11%)
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Grant's chart was imperfect. For that reason he sent Ensign Barrallier,
of the New South Wales Corps, who was a competent surveyor, in the brig, and it is, chiefly, to Barrallier we are indebted for our earliest and most authentic charts of the places which the Lady Nelson visited in the second voyage. Grant, however, had to contend with many difficulties in both voyages. First and foremost he had to face the risk and dangers of an entirely new coast, and this without a companion ship. King was aware of this for he wrote to Banks: "It is my intention to despatch the Lady Nelson to complete the orders she first sailed with. I also hope to spare a vessel to go with her which will make up for a very great defect which is the utter impossibility of her ever being able to beat off a lee shore." It is, therefore, well to remember that although Grant did not enter Port Phillip he was the first to see the indentation in the coast within which Port Phillip lay hidden. Grant had been instructed by the Admiralty to join H.M.S. Supply at Sydney. On his arrival he found this ship laid up as a hulk and unfit for sea. He says that he felt completely adrift until Governor King invited him to continue in his position as commander of the Lady Nelson but, in the colonial service and on less pay. As there was no one in the colony then fitted for the post, and as he did not wish the service to suffer from delay, he accepted the offer. Matters being thus arranged he was re-appointed to the Lady Nelson, his new commission dating from January 1st, 1801. On January 11th Captain Black, from the Cape, arrived in Sydney in the Harbinger, having followed the Lady Nelson through Bass Strait. On his way through the strait Black met with an island which he named King |
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