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

the Rattlesnake, and to be manned from that ship; and such of the present crew of the Bramble as may have served five years continuously, and volunteer to remain on the surveying service in Australia, are to be entered in the Rattlesnake under the provisions of the Act of Parliament. The books of the Bramble are to be closed, and she is to be considered as no longer in commission; and you are here by authorised, after being joined by her and by the Castlereagh, to enter ten supernumerary seaman for wages and victuals in the Rattlesnake (making her total complement 190) to enable you effectively to man the said two tenders.

In stretching off from the Barrier Reefs to the eastward, in order to explore the safety of the sea intervening between them and Louisiade and New Guinea, you will have occasion to approach those shores, in which case you must be constantly on your guard against the treacherous disposition of their inhabitants, all barter for refreshments should be conducted under the eye of an officer, and every pains be taken to avoid giving any just cause of offence to their prejudices, especially with respect to their women.

A naturalist having been permitted to accompany you, every reasonable facility is to be given him in making and preserving his collections.

In the event of this country being involved in hostilities during your absence, you will take care never to be surprised; but you are to refrain from any act of aggression towards the vessels or settlements of any nation with which we may be at war, as expeditions employed in behalf of discovery and science have always been considered by all civilised communities as acting under a general safeguard.

You will consider yourself under the command of Rear-Admiral Inglefield, the Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's ships and vessels on the East India station, while you are within the limits of that station; and we have signified to him our desire that he should not divert you from the survey, nor interfere with your proceedings, except under the pressure of strong necessity; and that upon all fit occasions he should order you to be supplied with the stores and provisions of which you may stand in need; and all officers senior to yourself, with whom you may fall in, are hereby directed to give you any assistance which may be requisite.

Notwithstanding the 16th article of the 4th section of the 6th chapter of the Admiralty Instructions, you are, besides your reports to your Commander-in-Chief, to send brief accounts to our Secretary of your proceedings, state, and condition: and you will make known to him, in due time, the nature and quantity of any supplies of which you may be absolutely in want, and which may have to be forwarded to you from England.

With our Hydrographer you are by every opportunity in your power to keep up a constant correspondence; you are to report to him in full detail all your proceedings; and you are to transmit to him, whenever possible, tracings of all charts and plans that you may have completed, accompanied by sailing directions, and with notices of any facts or discoveries which may be of interest to navigation.

Having completed the service herein set forth, you are to return in the Rattlesnake, along with the Bramble, to Spithead, when you will receive directions for your further proceedings. If the Bramble should, however, by that time be in an unfit state to undertake the voyage to Europe, it may perhaps be prudent to dispose of her, under the sanction of the Commander-in-Chief.

In the event of any unfortunate accident befalling yourself, the officer on whom the command may in consequence devolve, is hereby required and directed to carry out, as far as in him lies, the foregoing orders and instructions.

Given under our hands, this 1st December 1846.

Signed:

CHARLES ADAM.

JNO. D. DUNDAS.

To OWEN STANLEY, Esquire,

Captain of her Majesty's Surveying Vessel Rattlesnake, at Plymouth,

By command of their Lordships,

Signed: H.G. WARD.

...

HYDROGRAPHER'S INSTRUCTIONS.

In connection with the preceding general instructions to Captain Stanley, it will be necessary to give a portion of those more explicit directions furnished by the Hydrographer, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.

EXTRACTS FROM HYDROGRAPHIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR CAPTAIN STANLEY.

On your arrival at Sydney you should take the earliest opportunity of communicating with Lieutenant Yule, in order to learn how much has been executed, by the Bramble and her tender, of the orders which he received from Captain Blackwood, and you will no doubt avail yourself of his long experience in those seas in digesting your plan of future operations.

A letter from the Colonial Office having recently apprised their Lordships that it is the intention of her Majesty's Government to form a new settlement at Hervey Bay, and having requested that it may be duly examined with that view, your first undertaking, after leaving Sydney, should be to repair to that place, and to make an efficient survey of the whole bay, extending it down through the channel into Wide Bay, and marking the best anchorages, the most convenient landing-places, and the several parts where water may be found. And as it appears that Colonel Barney, R.E. is engaged in the same inquiry, it will be prudent to act in concert with him, and to give him a copy of such parts of it as may suit his purposes.

In your way to this district, and indeed on every part of the shores of Australia, you should lose no fair opportunity of verifying the positions-of multiplying the soundings-and of improving the smaller details of the coast as laid down by Captain P.P. King in his excellent Survey, but which he had not time or means to effect with the same accuracy that will be in your power. By carrying on this system of correction and improvement in our present charts from Hervey Bay along the narrow navigation which is generally known by the name of the Inshore Passage, between the coast and the Barrier Reefs, a very great benefit will be conferred on those masters of vessels who would be the more readily inclined to adopt that channel, if certain parts of it were so clearly delineated, and the soundings so spread on either side of the tracks, that they could sometimes continue under sail during the night. However necessary it was, and is, to contribute as much as possible to the safety of those vessels who choose the outer voyage by the Barrier Reefs, it is not the less our duty to facilitate the navigation of the Inshore Passage to all vessels who prefer its tranquillity and security to the risk of the former; and your labours for the accomplishment of this object will prove to be of peculiar importance when steam communication between Singapore and Sydney shall be established.

In the general and searching examination of those parts of the Coral Sea which are likely to be traversed by ships steering for Torres Strait, you will be obliged to regulate your movements by the periodic changes of the weather and monsoons-probably beginning to windward, and dropping gently to leeward by close and well-arranged traverses, and by spreading out your three vessels to a convenient distance apart. This great expanse of sea, which may be said to stretch from Lord Howe's Island to New Caledonia and to the Louisiade, would no doubt require many years work in order to accomplish that object; but, by dividing it into definite zones or squares, and by fully sifting those which you may undertake, a certain quantity of distinct knowledge will be gained. Navigators in crossing those zones will then be sure of their safety, and future surveyors will know exactly on what parts to expend their labours.

In carefully exploring the northernmost, and apparently the safest entrance from the Pacific, which may be called Bligh's Channel, you will connect the islands with a survey of the coast of New Guinea, as well as with the edge of the Warrior Reef, and as there are throughout moderate soundings, you will probably be able to draw up such clear directions as will enable the mariner to use it in moderate weather by night, and to beat through it at all times. Characteristic views of the coast and hills of New Guinea, as well as of each island, both from the eastward and westward, will greatly assist him by the immediate certainty of his landfall, and will also materially add to your means of giving proper marks and bearings for avoiding the dangers.

In Torres Strait you will find much to do-not only has a new rock been discovered in the middle of the Endeavour Channel, but the water in its western opening is only four and a half fathoms, and there seems no reason for not believing that Prince of Wales Channel is safer, easier, and more direct. But before we can decide upon that point, an accurate survey must be made of it, throughout its length and breadth, including the adjacent islands, and showing their anchorages and watering-places, as well as the nature of the soil, and the kind of timber they produce, along with a full investigation of the tides.

The connection of that Strait with Bligh's Farewell should also be examined, for many circumstances may render it highly necessary that the Admiralty should be made aware of what means there are to pass from one ocean to the other, without being observed from Cape York.

On this latter Cape Government have for some time contemplated a station, and it will therefore be very desirable to fix upon a convenient but secure anchorage in its neighbourhood. Our latest surveys do not show much promise of finding such a port; but, perhaps, inside the reefs beyond Peak Point, or more likely between Albany Island and the main, a snug place may be discovered for that purpose.

In tracing out the approach to Bligh's Farewell, you will be led to examine the southern face of New Guinea as far as Cape Valsche; but after verifying the position of this point, it will be prudent to quit the shores of that island, and not to meddle with any part of it over which the Dutch claim jurisdiction.

When you have arrived at this distant point, the south-east monsoon will probably render it necessary to repair to Port Essington for such supplies as may by previous arrangement have been sent there for you from Sydney; or perhaps unforeseen events might render it more expedient to proceed for refreshments to some of the islands in the Arafura Sea, or it is possible to one of the Dutch settlements in Java. And in either of these two latter cases you should make a complete survey of the island to which you have proceeded, or you should select any one of the eastern passages from Bally to Floris most convenient to the object you have in view, and then lay it down with precision. Of the many well-known passages between the innumerable islands of that great Archipelago, there is not one which has ever been charted with plausible accuracy; and it cannot be too strongly impressed on your mind that hydrography is better served by one accurate chart than by ten approximate sketches.

The several objects of this highly interesting expedition having thus been briefly enumerated, I have only to remind you that their Lordships do not prescribe to you the order in which they are to be executed, leaving it to your own prudence, and to your experience in those climates, so to arrange them that each part of your survey shall be complete in itself, and that each step in your progress shall be conducive to