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. It is curious that no proper examination of the
northern shores of Port Phillip was carried out by Colonel Collins. Had
he done so, he must have found the Yarra.) His cousin, Mr. William
Collins, who had accompanied him to Port Phillip, "in a private
capacity," first volunteered to bring this despatch round to Sydney, and
set forth in a six-oared boat. He was delayed by bad weather, and he and
his party of six convict sailors were overtaken and picked up by the
Ocean at Point Upright.
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