Honour to inform your Excellency that the Lady Nelson brig was sent
from England seven or eight years since by the Admiralty as an armed
tender to the ship of war on this station. On the departure of H.M.S.
Porpoise in March last, Commodore Bligh ordered her to be dismantled and
laid up in ordinary in the King's Yard. The Commodore gave her in charge
of Mr. Thomas Moore, the master builder, with directions to hand her over
to Colonel Paterson should he require her for the service of the colony.
Colonel Paterson applied for her immediately after the Porpoise sailed
hence, manned her with hired seamen, and she has since continued in the
employment of the Government for the use of these settlements."
From this time forward we hear of Governor Macquarie frequently taking
excursions in the Lady Nelson, and in October 1811, he, with Mrs.
Macquarie, proceeded in her to Van Diemen's Land, where he made an
extensive tour of inspection of the settlements, and every Governor in
turn seems to have used the brig for work of this character.
It is not easy to trace, subsequently, the doings of the Lady Nelson, and
presumably for a year or two she lay dismantled in Sydney Harbour, and
during that period is described as "nothing more or less than a Coal
Hulk."
By the Governor's orders, however, in 1819, when Captain Phillip King
left Sydney in the Mermaid to explore Torres Strait and the north coast
of Australia, the Lady Nelson was again made smart and trim and
accompanied the Mermaid as far as Port Macquarie. Lieutenant Oxley, R.N.,
sailed in the Lady Nelson, and after making a survey of the shores of the
port he returned in her to Port Jackson.
Until she set forth on her last voyage, the Lady Nelson continued to ply
between the settlements, carrying stores to them from the capital, and
bringing the settlers' grain and other produce to Sydney for sale, and as
the expansion of the colony proceeded, her sphere of usefulness naturally
became greatly enlarged.
CHAPTER 13.
THE LADY NELSON ACCOMPANIES H.M.S. TAMAR TO MELVILLE ISLAND.
In the year 1824, the British Government determined to form a settlement
on the north coast of Australia in the vicinity of Melville Island, with
the object of opening up intercourse between that district and the Malay
coast. On account of the nearness of the place to Timor, it was believed
that some of the trade of the East Indies would be attracted to its
shores. For some time previously small vessels from New South Wales had
traded regularly with certain islands of the Indian Archipelago chiefly
in pearls, tortoise-shell and beche-de-mer.
In order to carry out the intentions of the Government, Captain James
Gordon Bremer left England in H.M.S. Tamar on February 27th, 1824, for
Sydney, where the establishment was to be raised.
