amination. In the passage along the
South Coast, the strong breezes were from the southward, and the starbord
bow being out of the water, the leaks did not exceed five inches; had the
wind come from the northward, the little exertion we were then capable of
making at the pumps could hardly have kept the ship up; and a hard gale
from any quarter must have sent us to the bottom.

The Investigator being thus found incapable of further service, various
plans were suggested, and discussed with the governor, for prosecuting
the voyage; but that which alone could be adopted without incurring a
heavy expense to government, was to employ the armed vessel Porpoise; and
as this ship was too small to carry all my complement, with the necessary
provisions, to put the remainder into the Lady Nelson, under the command
of my second lieutenant. Both vessels were at this time required for a
few weeks colonial service to Van Diemen's Land; and my people not being
in a state to fit out a new ship immediately, our final arrangements were
deferred until their return. I took this opportunity of making an
excursion to the Hawkesbury settlement, near the foot of the back
mountains; and the fresh air there, with a vegetable diet and medical
care, soon made a great alteration in the scorbutic sores which had
disabled me for four months; and in the beginning of July I returned to
the ship, nearly recovered. The sick in the hospital were also
convalescent, and some had quitted it; but one or two cases still
remained doubtful.

4 JULY 1803

On the 4th, the Porpoise arrived from Van Diemen's Land, and I requested
the governor would order her to be surveyed, that it might be duly known
whether she were, or could be in a short time made, capable of executing
the service which remained to be done. I had heard some reports of her
being unsound; and it seemed worse than folly to be at the trouble and
expense of fitting out a ship which, besides causing a repetition of the
risk we had incurred in the Investigator, might still leave the voyage
unfinished. His Excellency, with that prompt zeal for His Majesty's
service which characterised him, and was eminently shown in every thing
wherein my voyage was concerned, immediately ordered the survey to be
made; and it appeared that, besides having lost part of the copper which
could not be replaced, the repairs necessary to make her fit for
completing what remained of the voyage, could not be done in less than