next boat, which we intend to build directly. She accordingly saild."
A letter by John Franklin to his father[1] gives an entertaining account of the wreck and of some other points pertaining to our subject:
- "Providential Bank,
- "August 26th, 1803,
- "Providential Bank,
"Latitude 22° 12', longitude 155° 13' (nearly) E.
"Dear Father,
"Great will be your surprise and sorrow to find by this that the late investigators are cast away in a sandy patch of about 300 yards long and 200 broad, by the wreck of H.M.S. Porpoise on our homeward bound passage on the reefs of New South Wales. You will then wonder how we came into her. I will explain: The Investigator on her late voyage, was found when surveying the Gulf of Carpentaria to be rotten, which obliged us to make our best way to Port Jackson; but the bad state of health of our crew induced Captain Flinders to touch at Timor for refreshment; which being done he sailed, having several men died on the passage of dysentery. On our arrival she was surveyed and condemned as being unfit for service. There being no other ship in Sydney fit to complete her intended voyage, Governor King determined to send us home in the Porpoise. She sailed August 10th, 1803, in company with the Bridgewater, extra Indiaman, and Cato, steering to the north-west intending to try how short a passage might be made through Torres Straits to England. On Wednesday, 17th, we fell in with reefs,[2] surveyed them, and kept our course, until half-past nine, when I was aroused by the cry of breakers, and before
