Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 by John MacGillivray (recommended reading txt) 📖

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PORT DALRYMPLE.

Five days after clearing the Heads of Port Phillip, we had crossed Bass Strait,* and anchored in Port Dalrymple, on the northern coast of Van Diemen's Land, and remained there sufficiently long to obtain rates for the chronometers, and connect it by meridian distance with William's Town, and Sydney.** The two lighthouses of Banks' Strait only now remained unvisited, that on the Kent Group, and another on Cape Otway, having been left to Lieutenant Yule.

(*Footnote. For every information required by navigators passing through Bass Strait, I would refer to Discoveries in Australia, with an account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the years 1837 to 1843 by J. Lort Stokes, Commander, R.N., and to the Admiralty chart by Captain Stokes. On this subject I find a manuscript note by Captain Stanley: "Stokes has mentioned in his chart that there is little or no tide in Bass Strait. Such may be the case, but I have invariably found a very strong current, depending both as to force and direction upon the prevailing winds. On one occasion, during a westerly gale, it set to the eastward with a velocity of at least three knots per hour. I mention this circumstance, as from Captain Stokes' remarks, strangers might be led to suppose there were no currents in the Strait, and neglect to take the usual precautions.")

(**Footnote. It is unnecessary to give separately the various meridian distances obtained by the Rattlesnake and Bramble, as these will be found, with the various circumstances affecting their value, in the Appendix.)

GOOSE ISLAND.

March 3rd.

With the help of a strong westerly wind we reached Goose Island at 5 P.M., and a party from the ship landed immediately after anchoring. The island is one and a half miles in length, by one in greatest breadth. The rock is a coarse sienite, forming detached bare masses and ridges, but none of considerable height. In the hollows the soil appears rich, dark, and pulverulent, with much admixture of unformed bird-guano. The scanty vegetation is apparently limited to a grass growing in tussocks, and a few maritime plants. The ground resembles a rabbit warren, being everywhere undermined by the burrows of the mutton-bird, a dark shearwater (Puffinus brevicaudus) the size of a pigeon. A person in walking across the island can scarcely avoid frequently stumbling among these burrows, from the earth giving way under his feet, and I was told by one of the residents that snakes are very numerous in these holes, living upon the mutton-birds; I myself trod upon one which, fortunately, was too sluggish to escape before I had time to shoot it, and ascertain it to be the well-known black snake of the Australian colonists (Acanthophis tortor) a very poisonous species. Among the seafowl, a large gull (Larus pacificus) was exceedingly plentiful, together with a smaller one (Xema jamesonii) and a few penguins (Spheniscus minor.) A fine flock of wild geese (Cereopsis novae hollandiae) was seen, but they were too wary to allow of close approach. About dusk clouds of mutton-birds came in from the sea, and we amused ourselves with chasing them over the ground among their burrows, and as many specimens as I required were speedily provided by knocking them down with a stick. As usual with the Petrel family they bite severely if incautiously handled, and disgorge a quantity of offensive oily matter, the smell of which pervades the whole island, a which the clothes I then wore retained for a long time afterwards.

The party in charge of the lighthouse have numbers of goats, pigs, and sheep, and also raise a few potatoes and other vegetables; still their life is a hard one-more so comparatively, than that of the keepers of the Eddystone or Bell Rock lights at home, as they communicate with Van Diemen's Land only twice a year, and are often in want of fuel, which they have to send for to a neighbouring island.

SWAN ISLAND.

March 4th.

Aided by the remains of a strong westerly wind, with which we at one time logged ten and a half knots-a great feat for the old Rattlesnake, jury-rigged as she was for surveying service, we passed through part of Banks' Strait, and anchored off Swan Island at 9 A.M. The rock is a fine-grained basalt, exposed only on the shore, the remainder of the island being a series of sandhills covered with low shrubs and luxuriant grass growing in tufts. Having left Captain Stanley's party on their way to the lighthouse, I found on the western side of the island a long sandy beach strewed with marine rejectamenta, among which were many new species of zoophytes; the number and variety of sponges was very great, but nearly all had suffered so much from exposure to the sun and weather, as to be useless as specimens. Returning to the ship before noon, we immediately got underweigh for Sydney.

RETURN TO SYDNEY.

March 9th.

Yesterday morning we picked up a strong South-South-East wind, which brought us off Botany Bay by 8 A.M., but the weather being thick with rain, and the land doubtful, being seen only in occasional glimpses, it was judged prudent to haul off, standing in again during a clearing. At length the lighthouse was distinguished, when we bore up, and in little more than an hour reached our former anchorage in Farm Cove.


CHAPTER 1.3.

Sail on our Second Northern Cruise. Entrance to the Inner Passage. Arrive at Rockingham Bay. Land Mr. Kennedy's Expedition. Commence the Survey at Dunk Island. Communication with Natives. Barnard Isles. Botanical Sketch. Examine a New River. Frankland Isles. Find the Coconut Palm. Fitzroy Island. The Will-o-the-Wisp and her Story. Trinity Bay. Animals of a Coral Reef. Stay at Lizard Island. Howick, Pelican, and Claremont Isles. Bird Isles. Meet party of Natives in Distress. Cairncross Island. Arrive at Cape York.

SAIL ON SECOND NORTHERN CRUISE.

April 29th.

The season for passing through Torres Strait from the southward having arrived, we left Port Jackson on a ten-months cruise, in order to complete the survey of the Inner Passage, or the clear channel between the north-east coast of Australia and the inner edge of the outer reefs, which again are bounded to seaward by the Great Barrier Reef, stretching from north to south, for a distance of upwards of 1000 miles.

In the evening we were joined by the Tam O'Shanter, a barque having on board a colonial overland expedition under Mr. Kennedy, which we are to accompany to Rockingham Bay, 1200 miles north from Sydney, where we are to assist in the disembarkation and starting of the party.

For the first nine days we averaged only thirty miles a day, owing to a long continuance of calms and light winds with a strong adverse current, which on one occasion set us to East-South-East fifty-three miles in twenty-four hours. At length, on May 8th we picked up a strong southerly breeze, accompanied by a northerly set. On May 12th we rounded Breaksea Spit, and Captain Stanley finding his original intention of passing inside of Lady Elliot's Island impracticable, or at least involving unnecessary delay, determined to bear up North-West by West keeping outside of the Bunker and Capricorn Groups, and try the channel previously passed through by Captain F.P. Blackwood in H.M.S. Fly. Captain Stanley's remarks on this subject are so important, that I give them verbatim:

ENTRANCE TO THE INNER PASSAGE.

"After reaching Lady Elliot's Island, we steered a course direct for the High Peak of the Northumberland Islands, so as to pass between Bunker's Group and Swain's Reef, which affords a far better entrance into the Inner Passage, than the old route round Breaksea Spit inside the Bunker Group; when the course requires to be changed, and the channel is much narrower. We sounded every half hour without finding bottom, with from 80 to 120 fathoms, till we came to the soundings laid down by the Fly, which we found to agree almost exactly with ours.

"Our soundings were obtained by using Massey's patent lead, with which we found we could reach the bottom at twenty-six fathoms, when the ship was going 9.2 knots an hour; and with such a guide any error in the reckoning would be detected, even by night, as the Bunker Group gives warning by the soundings. For a steamer going to Sydney by the Inner Route, this channel would be invaluable as far as the Pine Peak of the Percy Isles. One direct course will lead out to sea clear of all the reefs, a distance of more than 200 miles, during which period there would be ample time to ascertain by observations of the sun, whether any current had been experienced sufficient to place the ship in danger, and, as the channel between Swain's Reef and the Bunker Group appears to be clear, there is a drift of thirty miles on each side the course from the High Peak."

May 15th.

After having at daylight sighted the land about Port Bowen and Cape Townshend, we passed the Northumberland and Percy Isles to the westward, the water being very smooth with light airs from South to East-North-East. A very offensive smell which has been experienced in the after part of the ship for a week back, was today traced to some preserved meats prepared in Sydney; 1036 pounds of these being found quite putrid were condemned.*

(*Footnote. It is but justice to state here that the English invention of preserving meat in air-tight canisters had only recently been attempted in Sydney; and it was then to be regarded merely as an experiment to try whether a new and important article of colonial export could not be produced. Since then, further experience in the process has enabled the introducers of the plan to succeed so perfectly, that afterwards, the colonial preserved meats supplied to the Rattlesnake, including some which had been kept for eighteen months, were always preferred by us to those prepared in England. The meat itself, I allude to beef and mutton, was of better quality, and the cost much less.)

CAPE UPSTART.

May 19th.

At length, after several days of light and contrary winds, the wind came round to South-East and assumed the appearance of the trade, which we had at last picked up. We ran round the north-east end of the Cumberland Islands, passed Cape Gloucester, and in the evening anchored under Cape Upstart in our former berth.

During a solitary ramble next day, chiefly in order to search for a kind of rock wallaby, or small kangaroo, peculiar to this place, and which I failed on this occasion (as during two previous visits) to procure, I walked as far as the place where the Fly had watered some years previously. The large rocky basin which we had found dry in December last, when the whole plan of our first northern cruise had to be altered, in consequence of this unexpected result, was now nearly full. The aspect of the country had been considerably changed by the late abundant fall of rain, and the vegetation everywhere looked quite green. No signs of natives were seen-their visits to the immediate vicinity of the Cape appear to be made only at rare intervals; and the just chastisement bestowed upon them some years ago, in consequence of a wanton attack made upon a seining party will, probably, for some time to come, render them cautious of coming in contact with white men. While wading about among the tall grass, the long sharp awns of the prevailing kind, an Anthistiria, were more annoying than can be described, having forced their way in hundreds through my thin clothing, causing an annoying and painful irritation; to which, the