Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume I Part 34

In beating out of the river the cutter leaked a good deal, which showed that our late repair at Careening Bay had not placed us without the pale of danger: and I now began to fear that the leak had been occasioned more from the defect of her fastenings than from the accident that happened to her keel; so that we were in every respect as badly off as before the cutter was careened. This made me decide upon instantly returning to Port Jackson; but it was with great regret that I found it necessary to resolve so; for the land to the westward appeared so indented as to render the necessity of our departure at this moment particularly vexatious.

October 14.

The next day therefore we pa.s.sed out to sea to the westward of Baudin's Keraudren Island.

The wind, upon leaving the coast, being West-South-West and West-North-West, carried us as far to the north as 11 degrees 43 minutes before we met with southerly winds; after which they gradually veered to the south-east trade.

October 30.

On the 30th at midnight we were upon the parallel of 19 degrees 33 minutes, on which the Tryal rocks have been said to exist; in order therefore to be on the safe side we tacked to the northward for four hours and then pa.s.sed back again until daylight when we resumed our course.

October 31.

At ten o'clock a.m. we were in the lat.i.tude a.s.signed to these rocks by the brig Greyhound, the master of which vessel, on his arrival at Port Jackson from China last year, published an account in the Sydney Gazette of his having seen them at a distance. Had he been certain of the fact he would not have hesitated to approach sufficiently near them to have made all on board sensible of their existence; but it appears that the greater part, if not the whole, of the crew were so obstinate that they either would not, or could not, see them.

Were the tracks of every vessel that has pa.s.sed over this part laid down, I think there would remain very little belief of their existence; in my own opinion I am convinced that there is no danger of the sort between the coast of New Holland and the meridian of 102 degrees east longitude.

The Dutch account records this danger to be forty miles in extent from east to west and fifteen miles in breadth; and the Danish account describes it to extend for twenty-four miles from north-east to south-west. Was there a danger of so considerable an extent in existence in the direct track of outward-bound China-ships, it is hardly possible to conceive it could be pa.s.sed without having been repeatedly seen.

The existence of Cloates Island also, of which there are so many undeniable and particular descriptions, has been for a long time questioned by navigators; I think however there is no doubt that it does exist but that it is no other than the mainland to the southward of the North West Cape. The descriptions of this island by Captain Nash of the ship House of Austria, as well as that of the Haeslingfield in 1743, and subsequently by Captain Pelly, accord exactly with the appearance of this promontory; nor is the longitude much in error when we consider the strength of the currents which set to the north-west, during the easterly monsoon, in the s.p.a.ce between New Holland and Java. Captain Nash places Cloates Island 7 degrees 26 minutes East of Java Head, and the Haeslingfield 7 degrees 12 minutes; the mean of the two accounts is 7 degrees 19 minutes; the true difference of the meridians of Java Head and the North West Cape is 9 degrees 3 minutes, a difference only of 1 degree 44 minutes.

May not the Tryal Rocks also be some of the low islands that skirt the coast? The account of them by the Dutch sloop in 1718 places them in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 30 minutes and eighty leagues from the coast of New Holland; but, unless it is Bedout Island (a sandy islet seen by Captain Baudin, in longitude 118 degrees 50 minutes) there is no part of the coast that can at all accord with the description in respect to lat.i.tude.

The rocks seen by the Fredensberg Castle in 1777 are certainly the Montebello Isles, which answer the Dane's description exactly; for they are very low and rocky and abound in reefs, one of which extends a long distance to the north-west from Trimouille Island. There remains no doubt in my mind but that Barrow's Island and Trimouille Island, and the numerous reefs around them, are the identical Tryal Rocks which have been the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands for the two last centuries.* Captain Flinders** spent some days in an ineffectual search for them and has, I think, decidedly proved their non-existence between the parallels of 20 1/4 and 21 degrees, and the meridians of 103 1/2 and 106 1/2 degrees. The above islands accord exactly as to lat.i.tude; and the only argument against the probability of this supposition is their longitude; but during the month of July the current sets with great strength to the westward and might occasion considerable errors in ships'

reckonings, which, in former days, were so imperfectly kept that no dependence can be placed upon them.

(*Footnote. The Tryal Rocks obtained their name from the English ship Tryal, said to have been lost upon them in 1622 (vide Horsburg's Indian Directory volume 1 page 100). This danger having been once laid down will, perhaps, never be erased from the chart, although it is generally believed not to exist. It has been placed in various positions according to the account which the compiler gives most credence to. In Arrowsmith's large chart of the South Sea it is laid down in 20 degrees 40 minutes South and 104 1/2 degrees East.)

(**Footnote. Flinders volume 2 pages 261 to 263.)

1820. November 1.

The following afternoon the man at the masthead reported breakers in the West-North-West, and when I went to examine from thence I was for some time equally deceived: the helm was put up and we bore down towards them but, as we approached, they vanished and we found we had been deceived by the reflection of the sun's rays upon the water.* After being sufficiently a.s.sured of our mistake, the course was resumed.

(*Footnote. The deceptious appearances that are frequently observed at sea, such as the reflection of the sun, ripplings occasioned by the meeting of two opposite currents, whales asleep upon the surface of the water, shoals of fish, fog-banks, and the extraordinary effect of mirage, than which, as an optical illusion, nothing is more deceiving, have doubtless given birth to many of these non-existing shoals and islands.

Were charts to be published (one does exist in ma.n.u.script, in the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty) with all the islands and dangers laid down that have been reported by good and respectable authorities, the navigator would be in a constant fever of anxiety and alarm for the safety of his vessel. The charts of the present day teem with examples of this sort and many islands and reefs are laid down which have not been seen since their first discovery, and which perhaps never existed at all, unless, like Sabrina Island, they were thrown up by a submarine volcano, and disappeared immediately afterwards.)

November 2.

And by the following noon we had pa.s.sed the parallel of the southernmost limit a.s.signed to these redoubtable rocks.

When we were on the starboard tack two nights before, the cutter leaked so much that we were upwards of an hour pumping out the water that had collected in three hours.

On the 2nd of November we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in 100 1/2 degrees East.

November 4.

And on the 4th in lat.i.tude 28 degrees the trade-wind ceased: the winds were however variable between South and South-East until we reached the lat.i.tude of 31 1/2 degrees and longitude 95 degrees 20 minutes; when the wind veered by North-East to North-West and West-North-West and we made rapid progress to the south-east. Between the parallels of 40 and 42 degrees, we had the wind always to the westward of North by East and South by West, with the current uniformly setting to the northward, sometimes at the rate of three-quarters of a mile per hour; to the south-west of Cape Leeuwin it affected us more than one knot: scarcely any easterly current was observed.

November 27.

On the 27th at eight p.m. we sounded in forty-eight fathoms.

November 28.

And at one o'clock the following morning saw the Black Pyramid and soon after entered Ba.s.s Strait by the pa.s.sage on the south side of King's Island. After running into the lat.i.tude of Sea Elephant Bay on the east side of King's Island, in an unsuccessful search after some rocks laid down in the French charts but not noticed in those of Captain Flinders, we bore up; and at eleven p.m. pa.s.sed Sir Roger Curtis Island.

November 29.

And the next day cleared the strait.

1820. December 2.

On the 2nd we were off Mount Dromedary; and the wind blew strong from the East, the weather a.s.suming a threatening appearance.

December 3.

The next day we pa.s.sed the heads of Jervis Bay at the distance of three or four leagues, and the course was altered to North and North by West parallel to the coast. At noon an indifferent observation for the lat.i.tude and a sight of the land, which for a few minutes was visible through the squalls, showed that our situation was very much nearer to the sh.o.r.e than we had expected, a circ.u.mstance that was attributed to a current setting into the bight to the northward of Jervis Bay. The wind from the eastward was light and baffling and this, added to the critical situation we were in, made me very anxious to obtain an offing before night for there was every appearance of a gale from the eastward.

After two or three squalls a breeze sprung up from the East-South-East with heavy rain, and a North-North-East course was steered, which should have taken us wide of the coast: having run thirty-seven miles on that course we steered North by East four miles and then North 1/2 West that we might not be more than twenty miles from the sh.o.r.e in the morning and sufficiently near to see the lighthouse on the south head of Port Jackson; but, from an unusual westerly current, we found ourselves, very nearly to our destruction, considerably out of our reckoning.

December 4.

At 2 hours 40 minutes a.m., by the glare of a flash of lightning, the land was suddenly discovered close under our lee: we hauled to the wind immediately but the breeze at the same moment fell, and the swell being heavy, the cutter made but little progress. Sail was made as quickly as possible and as the cutter headed North-North-East there was every likelihood of her clearing the land; but a quarter of an hour afterwards, by the light of another flash, it was again seen close to us, stretching from right ahead to our lee-quarter and so near that the breakers were distinctly seen gleaming through the darkness of the night. A third flash of lightning confirmed our fears as to the dangerous situation we were in; and as there was not room to veer the helm was immediately put a-lee; but, as was feared, the cutter refused stays. We were now obliged to veer as a last resource, and the sails being manoeuvred so as to perform this operation as quickly as possible, we fortunately succeeded in the attempt and the cutter's head was brought to the wind upon the other tack without her striking the rocks: we were now obliged to steer as close to the wind as possible in order to weather the reef on which the sea was breaking, within five yards to leeward of the vessel: our escape appeared to be next to impossible: the night was of a pitchy darkness and we were only aware of our situation from time to time as the lightning flashed: the interval therefore between the flashes, which were so vivid as to illumine the horizon round, was of a most awful and appalling nature, and the momentary succession of our hopes and fears which crowded rapidly upon each other, may be better imagined than described. We were evidently pa.s.sing the line of breakers very quickly; but our escape appeared to be only possible through the interposition of a Divine Providence, for, by the glare of a vivid stream of forked lightning, the extremity of the reef was seen within ten yards from our lee bow; and the wave which floated the vessel the next moment broke upon the rocks with a surf as high as the vessel's masthead: at this dreadful moment the swell left the cutter, and she struck upon a rock with such force that the rudder was nearly lifted out of the gudgeons: fortunately we had a brave man and a good seaman at the helm, for instantly recovering the tiller, by a blow from which he had been knocked down when the vessel struck, he obeyed my orders with such attention and alacrity that the sails were kept full; so that by her not losing way, she cleared the rock before the succeeding wave flowed from under her, and the next moment a flash of lightning showed to our almost unbelieving eyes that we had pa.s.sed the extremity of the rocks and were in safety! This sudden deliverance from the brink of destruction was quite unexpected by all on board our little vessel and drew from us a spontaneous acknowledgement of grat.i.tude to the only source from whence our providential escape could be attributed.

It was now doubtful whether we could clear the point under our lee which we first saw, but as the next flash of lightning showed that we were between the heads of Botany Bay, and that the point on which we had nearly been wrecked was, according to Captain Hunter's plan, Cape Banks, its northern head, we bore up and in half an hour were safe at anchor.

Daylight now broke and with it the weather began to get worse, so that we were obliged to remain at this anchorage, which was on the south side of the bay near Point Sutherland, until the next morning; when we got under sail and anch.o.r.ed near the opposite sh.o.r.e, under the guard-house, from which the soldiers supplied us with some refreshments.

December 6.

On the 6th His Excellency the Governor was informed of our arrival and of our intention to go round to Port Jackson as soon as the weather cleared up; but we were detained by it until the 9th; when with some difficulty we cleared the entrance of the bay; at noon the anchor was once more dropped in Sydney Cove, after an absence of twenty-five weeks and three days.

END OF VOLUME 1.