because he knew
King thought he had not, and it looks as if the admission was made as a
pretext to obtain his passage to England, rather than for the purpose of
belittling his own capabilities. That Grant was a fine seaman goes
without saying. That he was personally courageous, his subsequent naval
services proved. He seems to have handled his ship at all times with
extraordinary care, and it may have been that he had studied marine
surveying with less assiduity than seamanship, for the chart that he made
must be admitted to be very imperfect.

Murray, his successor in the command of the brig, is best remembered as
the discoverer of Victoria, and "yet," writes Rusden, "he (Murray) merely
obeyed a distinct order in going thither to trace the coast between Point
Schanck and Cape Albany Otway noticing the soundings and everything
remarkable." Rusden might have added, that Murray probably received some
benefit from Grant's experiences, for at that time he was equally
incompetent as a marine surveyor. It is Flinders who has credited Grant
with the discovery of the coast of Victoria "as far as Cape Schanck," and
Flinders was most competent to judge as to whom the honour should belong.
On the great seaman's chart published in 1814 (Terra Australis, by M.
Flinders, South Coast, Sheet 5) is inscribed, "Coast as far as Cape
Schanck discovered by Captain James Grant, 1800," in which track, of
course, is included the entrance to Port Phillip, although Flinders knew
that Grant had not penetrated to the bay itself.

Grant sailed from Sydney in the Anna Josepha, Captain Maclean, an old
Spanish brig, belonging to Mr. Simeon Lord. She had been taken off the
coast of Peru by the Betsy whaler, and on her arrival at Sydney was
renamed Anna Josepha in honour of the Governor's wife. Loaded with coals
and spars, the ship left Port Jackson for the Cape of Good Hope on
November 9th, 1801. She steered southward of New Zealand, made Cape Horn,
and then sailed to the Falklands. Grant quitted her when she reached
Tristan D'Acunha and obtained a passage in the Ocean as far as Table Bay.
There he shipped on April 12th, 1802, in H.M.S. Imperieuse for England,
where he arrived safely, and, in due course, reported himself to the
Admiralty.

Three years later he obtained his rank of Commander on January 12th,
1805, with a pension for gallantry in a spirited action off Holland, when
in command of the Hawke cutter he was badly wounded. He subsequently