In Entering Upon Her Eventful Colonial Career, "The Lady Nelson Did That
Which Alone Ought To Immortalize Her Name - She
Was the first ship that
ever sailed parallel to the entire southern coast line of Australia."* (*
Early History of Victoria
By F.P. Labilliere.) She was also the first
vessel to sail through Bass Strait. But discovery cannot claim her solely
for itself. While she was stationed at Sydney there was scarcely a
dependency of the mother colony that was not more or less indebted to
her, either for proclaiming it a British possession, or for bringing it
settlers and food, or for providing it with means of defence against the
attacks of natives.
In the early history of Victoria the Lady Nelson occupies a niche
somewhat similar to that which the Endeavour fills in the annals of New
South Wales, but while Cook and the Endeavour discovered the east coast
and then left it, the Lady Nelson, after charting the bare coast-line of
Victoria, returned again and again to explore its inlets and to penetrate
its rivers, her boats discovering the spacious harbour at the head of
which Melbourne now stands.
The Lady Nelson also went northward as well as southward, and though many
of her logbooks are missing, some survive, and one describes how, in
company with the Investigator under Captain Flinders, she examined the
Queensland shore as far as the Cumberland Islands. Later she accompanied
the Mermaid, under Captain King, to Port Macquarie when he followed
Flinders' track through Torres Strait, and during her long period of
service she visited different parts of the coast, including Moreton Bay,
Port Essington, and Melville Island. Precisely how many voyages she made
as a pioneer will probably never be known. The ship, at least, played
many parts: now acting as King's messenger and carrying despatches from
the Governor to Norfolk Island; now fetching grain grown at the
Hawkesbury, or coals from Newcastle for the use of the increasing
population at Sydney; and at another time carrying troops and settlers to
the far distant north. She made other memorable voyages; for example,
when she conveyed bricks burnt in Sydney brick kilns to Tasmania and to
New Zealand, in order to build homes for the first white settlers in
those lands. She helped also to establish Lieutenant Bowen's colony at
Risdon. On that occasion we read that the little ship lent the colony a
bell and half a barrel of gunpowder. The logbooks do not record to what
use the bell was put, but whether it served as a timekeeper or to call
the people to worship, it was doubtless highly valued by the early
Tasmanian colonists.
At the time of her sailing to Australia the Lady Nelson was a new ship of
60 tons. She was built at Deptford in 1799, and differed from other
exploring vessels in having a centre-board keel. This was the invention
of Captain John Schanck, R.N., who believed that ships so constructed
"would sail faster, steer easier, tack and wear quicker and in less
room." He had submitted his design to the Admiralty in 1783, and so well
was it thought of that two similar boats had been built for the Navy, one
with a centre-board and one without, in order that a trial might be made.
The result was so successful that, besides the Cynthia sloop and Trial
revenue cutter, other vessels were constructed on the new plan, among
them the Lady Nelson.
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