1803.
July.
take especial care to lose no time in getting to England by the route captain Flinders may indicate."
August.In the beginning of August, the Porpoise was nearly ready to sail; and two ships then lying in Sydney Cove, bound to Batavia, desired leave to accompany us through the Strait. These were the Hon. East-India-Company's extra-ship Bridgewater, of about 750 tons, commanded by E.H. Palmer, Esq., and the ship Cato of London, of about 450 tons, commanded Mr. John Park. The company of these ships gave me pleasure; for if we should be able to make a safe and expeditious passage through the strait with them, of which I had but little doubt, it would be a manifest proof of the advantage of the route discovered in the Investigator, and tend to bring it into general use. Wednes. 10.On the 10th I took leave of my respected friend the governor of New South Wales, and received his despatches for England; and lieutenant Fowler having given a small code of signals to the Bridgewater and Cato, we sailed out of Port Jackson together, at eleven o'clock of the same morning, and steered north-eastward for Torres' Strait.
Mr. Inman had re-delivered to me the two time-keepers, with a table of their rates deduced from equal altitudes, but the No. 543 had gone so very irregularly, as not to be entitled to any confidence; the error of No. 520 from mean Greenwich time at noon there on the 2d, and its rate of going during the twenty-five preceding days were as under:
Earnshaw's No. 520, fast, 0ʰ 49′ 54″,85 and losing 33″,38 per day.
Plate I.)The winds were light, and mostly from the eastward during the first two days of our quitting Port Jackson; and not being able to get far enough from the land to avoid the southern current, it had retarded us 35′ on the 12th at noon,Friday 12. when the islands of Port Stephens were in sight. On the following day the wind became more steady in the south-western quarter, and as our distance from the land increased, the current abated; and on the 15th, when the latitude was 27° 27′, longitude 156° 22′, and distance from the coast
