terhouse; and the unpleasantness of the voyage can be imagined, apart
from that officer's assurance that it was "one of the longest and most
disagreeable passages I ever made." The vessels left Cape Town for Sydney
on April 11th, 1797. The Supply was so wretchedly leaky that it was
considered positively unsafe for her to risk the voyage. But her
commander, Lieutenant William Kent, had a high sense of duty, and his
courage was guided by the fine seamanship characteristic of the service.
Having in view the importance to the colony of the stock he had on board,
he determined to run her through. As a matter of fact, the Supply arrived
in Sydney forty-one days before the Reliance (May 16), though Hunter
reported that she reached port "in a most distressed and dangerous
condition," and would never be fit for sea again. Kent's memory is
worthily preserved on the map of Australia by the name (given by Flinders
or by Hunter himself) of the Kent group of islands at the eastern
entrance of Bass Strait.

The Reliance, meeting with very bad weather, made a very slow passage.
Captain Waterhouse mentioned that one fierce gale was "the most terrible
I ever saw or heard of," so that he "expected to go to the bottom every
moment." He wondered how they escaped destruction, but rounded off his
description with a seaman's joke: "possibly I may be intended to be hung
in room of being drowned." The ship was very leaky all the way, and
Hunter reported that she returned to port with her pumps going. She
reached Sydney on June 26th.

The unseaworthy condition of the Reliance had an important bearing on the
share Flinders took in Australian discovery, for it was unquestionably in
consequence of his being engaged upon her repair that he was prevented
from accompanying his friend Bass on the expedition which led to the
discovery of Bass Strait. This statement is proved not only by the
testimony of Flinders himself, but by concurrent facts. Waterhouse wrote
on the return of the ship to Port Jackson, "we have taken everything out
of her in hopes of repairing her." This was in the latter part of 1797. A
despatch from Hunter to the British Government in January, 1798, shows
that at that time she was still being patched up. Flinders recorded that
"the great repairs required by the Reliance would not allow of my
absence," but that "my friend Mr. Bass, less confined by his duty, made
several excursions." Finally, it was on December 3rd, 1797, while the
r