The Reader Can Perform The Experiment With
That.) It Will Be Noticed That A Clear View Into The Port, Except From A
Particular Angle, Is Blocked By The Land On The Eastern Side (Point
Nepean) Overlapping The Tongue Of Land Just Inside The Port On The
Western Side (Shortland's Bluff).
Not until a vessel stands fairly close
and opposite to the entrance, so that the two lighthouses on the western
side, at Queenscliff, "open out," can the passage be discerned.* (*
Ferguson, Sailing Directions for Port Phillip, 1854 - he was
harbour-master at the time - says (page 9):
"Vessels having passed Cape
Schanck should keep a good offing in running down towards the entrance
until they open out the lighthouses, WHICH ARE NOT SEEN BEFORE BEARING
NORTH 1/2 EAST OWING TO THE HIGH LAND OF POINT NEPEAN INTERVENING."
Findley, Navigation of the South Pacific Ocean, 1863, has a remark about
the approach to the port from the west: "In approaching Port Phillip from
the westward, the entrance cannot be distinguished until Nepean Point,
the eastern point, bears north-north-east, when Shortland's Bluff, on
which the lighthouses are erected, opens out, and a view of the estuary
is obtained." A Treatise on the Navigation of Port Phillip, by Captain
Evans (a pilot of thirty-six years' experience), has also been
consulted.) Indeed, a pilot of much experience has assured the writer
that ships, whose captains know the port, are sometimes seen "dodging
about" (the phrase is the pilot's) looking for the entrance.
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