he worthy
admiral (now lord Gambier) who had a seat at the Admiralty board when the
Investigator was ordered to be fitted.

This morning lieutenant Fowler had been sent to search the southern
islands in Thorny Passage for any remains of our people; but he was not
able to land, nor in rowing round them to see any indication of the
objects of his pursuit. The recovery of their bodies was now the furthest
to which our hopes extended; but the number of sharks seen in the cove
and at the last anchorage rendered even this prospect of melancholy
satisfaction extremely doubtful; and our want of water becoming every day
more pressing, we prepared to depart for the examination of the new
opening to the northward. I caused an inscription to be engraven upon a
sheet of copper, and set up on a stout post at the head of the cove,
which I named _Memory Cove_; and further to commemorate our loss, I gave
to each of the six islands nearest to Cape Catastrophe the name of one of
the seamen: Thistle's and Taylor's Islands have been already mentioned.
Mr. Westall's view from the ship in Memory Cove, represents Thistle's
Island and three of the small isles in front of it.

(Atlas, Plate XVII, View 9.)

The reader will pardon me the observation that Mr. Thistle was truly a
valuable man, as a seaman, an officer, and a good member of society. I
had known him, and we had mostly served together, from the year 1794. He
had been with Mr. Bass in his perilous expedition in the whale-boat, and
with me in the voyage round Van Diemen's Land, and in the succeeding
expedition to Glass-house and Hervey's Bays. From his merit and prudent
conduct he was promoted from before the mast to be a midshipman, and
afterwards a master in his Majesty's service. His zeal for discovery had
induced him to join the Investigator when at Spithead and ready to sail,
although he had returned to England only three weeks before, after an
absence of six years. Besides performing assiduously the duties of his
situation, Mr. Thistle had made himself well acquainted with the practice
of nautical astronomy, and began to be very useful in the surveying
department. His loss was severely felt by me; and he was lamented by all
on board, more especially by his mess-mates, who knew more intimately the
goodness and stability of his disposition.

Mr. William Taylor, the midshipman of the boat, was a young officer who
promised fair to become an ornament to the service, as he was to socie