THE LOGBOOKS OF THE LADY NELSON
WITH THE JOURNAL OF HER FIRST COMMANDER LIEUTENANT JAMESGRANT, R.N.
BY
IDA LEE, F.R.G.S. (MRS. CHARLES BRUCE MARRIOTT.)
AUTHOR OF:
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH TO AUSTRALIA,
[and]
COMMODORE SIR JOHN HAYES, HIS VOYAGE AND LIFE.
WITH SIXTEEN CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE ORIGINALS INTHE ADMIRALTY LIBRARY.
GRAFTON & CO.
69 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
LONDON. W.C.
First Published in 1915.
TO THE MEMORY OF MY GRANDFATHER,
WILLIAM LEE,
ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S PIONEERS.
PREFACE.
The objects for which the Lady Nelson's voyages wereundertaken render her logbooks of more than ordinary interest.She was essentially an Australian discovery ship and during hersuccessive commissions she was employed exclusively in Australianwaters. The number of voyages that she made will perhaps never beaccurately known, but her logbooks in existence testify to theimportant missions that she accomplished. The most notable arethose which record early discoveries in Victoria: the explorationof the Queensland coast: the surveys of King Island and the KentGroup: the visits to New Zealand and the founding of settlementsat Hobart, Port Dalrymple, and Melville Island. Seldom can thelogbooks of a single ship show such a record. Their publicationseemed very necessary, for the handwriting on the pages of someof them is so faded that it is already difficult to decipher, andapparently only the story of Grant's voyages and the extractsfrom Murray's log published by Labilliere in the Early History ofVictoria have ever before been published. In transcription I havesomewhat modernized the spelling where old or incorrect formstended to obscure the sense, and omitted repetitions, as it wouldhave been impossible to include within the limits of one volumethe whole of the contents of the logbooks. The story of the LadyNelson as told by Grant has in places been paraphrased, for hesometimes writes it in diary form under date headings and atothers he inserts the date in the narrative. The entries from thelogbooks of Murray, Curtoys and Symons, in the Public RecordOffice, with such omissions as I have specified, are printedverbatim.
Murray's charts now published are distinctly valuable, as inthe fourth volume of the Historical Records of New South Wales,where they should be found, it is stated that they are"unfortunately missing."
On my inquiring at the Admiralty, Mr. Perrin, the Librarian,to whom my cordial thanks are due, made a special search and wasfortunate 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 appealespecially to the people of Victoria, is that of Port Phillipshowing the track of the Lady Nelson's boat when the brig enteredthe bay for the first time. Murray's log telling of thisdiscovery ends on March 24th, 1802. In writing later to the Dukeof Portland, Governor King says: "The Lady Nelson's return justbefore I closed my letters enabled me to transmitActing-Lieutenant Murray's log copies of the discoveries of KingIsland and Port Phillip. These important discoveries, beingcombined with the chart of former surveys, I hope will convinceyour Grace that that highly useful vessel the Lady Nelson has notbeen idle under my direction." The charts were sent home incharge of Lieutenant Mackellar, who sailed in the ship Carolineon March 30th, 1802, six days after the Lad