Calm and hot sultry weather, 1/2 past 12
weighed and towed down the river.
"Sunday, 13th November. At 1 weighed and towed down the river, at 4 came
to. A.M. Calm and cloudy weighed and made sail down the river.
"Saturday, 19th November 1803. At 2 weighed and made sail down the river.
Up top-gallant yards, at 7 came to in Pitt's Water. A.M. Light breezes
and cloudy. At daylight weighed and made sail: at 4 calm and cloudy: came
to.
"Sunday, 20th November. P.M. Calm. At 1 a breeze from the north-east.
Weighed and made sail, at 2 all sail set, standing out of the Bay at 4
ditto weather: at 9 came to in Sydney Cove: furled sails and took in the
moorings. A.M. Strong breezes and cloudy, down top gallant yards.
"Friday, 25th November. Employed receiving the wood and water. Delivering
the iron and wine received for Norfolk Island and got ready to go to Port
Phillip.
"(Signed) GEORGE CURTOYS."
The log of George Curtoys ends on November 25th when he was taken ill and
went on shore to the Naval hospital at Sydney. We hear little of his
subsequent career, beyond that he retired from the Royal Navy and settled
down at the island of Timor,* (* The Sydney Gazette (1814) says that the
ship Morning Star, Captain Smart, brought the above news concerning
Captain Curtoys to Sydney. Captain Curtoys' brig had left Surabaja for
Timor three months before Captain Smart's arrival at that port.) becoming
commander of a brig, which occasionally traded with Surabaja.
CHAPTER 9.
SYMONS SUCCEEDS CURTOYS AS COMMANDER OF THE LADY NELSON.
HIS VOYAGES TO PORT PHILLIP, TASMANIA, AND NEW ZEALAND.
George Curtoys was succeeded in the command of the Lady Nelson by Acting
Lieutenant James Symons, who, like himself, had come to New South Wales
as a midshipman in H.M.S. Glatton under Captain Colnett. Symons
afterwards served on board the Buffalo, and doubtless gained much
knowledge of the Australian coast while he was in that ship. She is well
known on account of her many pioneering voyages, and it is also recorded
that her figure-head was the effigy of a kangaroo, and for this reason,
on her first arrival in Sydney, she became an object of no little
interest to the natives. Symons' appointment was somewhat hurriedly made,
when, after Curtoys had been sent to sick quarters on shore, the ship
Ocean arrived from Port Phillip. Her commander, Captain Mertho, brought
important despatches to the Governor from Colonel Collins, who had been
instructed by the British Government to form a settlement at that spot.
The establishment had been conveyed from England in two ships, H.M.S.
Calcutta, Captain Woodriff, and the Ocean, Captain Mertho.* (* The ships
left England in April, 1803, and arrived at Port Phillip on the 7th and
8th of October.) Colonel Collins now reported that the site at Port
Phillip, which he had originally chosen, was unsuitable, and asked King's
permission to move the whole settlement to Tasmania.* (* Collins settled
at what is now Sorrento.
