The Lady Nelson was then brought to and moored in
Diana Bay, a well-known anchorage in Furneaux Islands.
Murray, at this time, seems to have been much farther southward than
Governor King intended him to go, for the island which he writes of as
Grand Capshine was undoubtedly the Grand Capuchin, the largest island of
the Furneaux Group, now known as Flinders Island.* (* Named Flinders
Island by Captain Flinders in honour of his brother, Lieutenant Samuel
Flinders, R.N.)
Diana Bay, the bay in which the Lady Nelson stayed for some days, was
formed by the shores of the Grand Capuchin and Storehouse and Cat
Islands, the last named islands being the Babel Islands of Flinders. In
very early days this bay was much frequented by sealing vessels and in
1801 gained its name from the ship Diana, a small vessel belonging to
Messrs. Kable & Underwood, of Sydney, which afterwards stranded on the
Grand Capuchin and which had a curious history. A French schooner named
L'Entreprise of Bordeaux, under the command of Captain Le Corre, last
from the Isle of France, while sealing in these waters was also wrecked
about a year later off one of the Sisters, 30 miles to the northward of
where the Diana went ashore. Le Corre and two-thirds of his crew
perished. The supercargo whose name, according to Peron, was Coxwell, but
which the Sydney Gazette prints as Coggeshall, was among the saved and
was brought with the other rescued men to Sydney. Coggeshall returned
with Mr. Underwood to endeavour to save the hull of the vessel, and
though they failed to float L'Entreprise, they were more successful as
regards the Diana which was repaired and renamed the Surprise, the name
by which the lost French schooner had been known by the English from
Governor King downwards. In order to pay expenses she was put up to
public auction in Sydney and purchased by one of the officers of
L'Entreprise for 117 guineas, but was afterwards resold to her original
owners, Messrs. Kable & Underwood.* (* See Sydney Gazettes, March 12th
and March 19th, 1803.)
Murray did not name the Grand Capuchin, for it was so called before the
time of his visit. Nor did Flinders or Bass give it that name, which was
probably derived from the cowled peak of a mountain on it, one of three
christened by Flinders the Patriarchs, combined with the fact that
Furneaux had already named some black rocky islands that lay off the
entrance to Storm Bay Passage, The Friars.* (* The Boreels Eylander of
Tasman.) It seems likely that Barrallier in the Lady Nelson's previous
voyage or some French sailor bestowed the name Capuchin upon Flinders
Island, and Murray wrote it on his chart, although it was afterwards
erased from the maps and replaced at first by the name of Great Island
and later by that of Flinders Island.* (* The Sydney Gazette of March
31st, 1831, in giving the names of the Furneaux Group transfers the name
to Babel Islands, i.e. "Babel Islands or Capisheens as called by the
sealers," but, as Murray's Chart, page 146, and Sydney Gazettes of an
earlier period will show, at first Flinders Island alone was called
Capuchin.)
Leaving Diana Bay on November 25th Murray saw the easternmost members of
the Kent Group and steered through the passage which separates the
principal islands and which was named in his honour, Murray's Passage.
Flinders had passed through the same passage, when he discovered the
group, in the Francis in 1798, and named a rock to the south of it the
Judgment Rock "from its resemblance to an elevated seat."* (* The
Australian Sailing Directory, Admiralty.)
After surveying the Kent Group, Murray started to carry out his survey of
Western Port and Port Phillip. On December 5th he sighted Sir Roger
Curtis's Island and on the 7th reached Western Port where he was detained
by bad weather until the first week in January. On January 5th* (* The
logbooks were kept in nautical fashion, the day beginning at noon before
the civil reckoning, so that Port Phillip was really discovered on the
afternoon of Monday, January 4th, 1802. According to the Admiralty
librarian the change from nautical to civil reckoning in the logs did not
take place until 1805.) as the vessel ran along the Victorian coast
towards Port Phillip dense smoke from native fires hid the land from
view. At 3 P.M. the smoke had cleared away and Bowen, who was at the
masthead, espied an opening in the land ahead which "had the appearance
of a harbour." Keeping close in for it Murray saw inside a fine smooth
sheet of water. An island lay at the entrance but the waves were breaking
high on the rocks so the brig was hauled off and taken out to sea. Murray
then steered to King Island deciding to return again later to explore the
newly discovered harbour. He surveyed the east coast of King Island from
Cape Farewell to Seal Bay. Some sea elephants were lying on the beach of
the bay that he first entered, and this was named Sea Elephant Bay.* (*
Murray's survey of King Island was an important one and Governor King
refers to it as "giving to the British priority of discovery over the
French ships" when eleven months afterwards Baudin came to the island.)
The following pages describe Murray's exploration of King Island and of
his first sight of Port Phillip.
MURRAY'S LOG.
H.M.A. SURVEYING VESSEL LADY NELSON ON DISCOVERY. LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER
JOHN MURRAY.
Sydney Cove to Bass Strait.
"Thursday, 12th November 1801. Working out of ye Heads at 1 P.M. - at 2
P.M. ye South Head of Port Jackson bore north-north-west 11 miles. At 4
P.M. ye weather began to look squally and black from ye south-west with
now and then lightning...At 5 it thundered and the lightning
increased...During night fresh winds and a heavy sea up; in the morning
no land in sight.
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