As The Investigator Was No Longer Fit For Service, She Was Condemned.
Captain Flinders Resolved, As He Could Not Finish The Survey, To Return To
England, In Order To Lay His Journals And Charts Before The Admiralty:
He
accordingly embarked on board the Porpoise store ship, which, in company
with the Cato and Bridgwater, bound to Batavia, sailed in August, 1803.
The
Porpoise and Cato were wrecked on a reef of rocks nearly 800 miles from
Botany Bay: most of the charts, logs, and astronomical observations were
saved; but the rare plants, as well as the dried specimens, were lost or
destroyed. On the 26th of August, Captain Flinders left the reef in the
cutter, and after a passage of considerable danger, reached Port Jackson on
the 8th of September. As he was extremely anxious to lodge his papers as
soon as possible with the Lords of the Admiralty, he embarked from Port
Jackson in a vessel, something less than a Gravesend passage boat, being
only 29 tons burden. Even in such a vessel, Captain Flinders did not lose
sight of the objects nearest his heart: he passed through Torres' Straits,
examined Pandora's entrance, explored new channels among the coral reefs,
examined Prince of Wales Island, crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria, and after
anchoring at some islands on the western side of the gulf, directed his
route to Timor: here he refitted his vessel, and then sailed for the Isle
of France, where it was absolutely necessary he should touch, in order that
she might undergo a repair, as she was very leaky.
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