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.
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