[Facsimile signature James Symons]
Lieutenant Symons' logbook closes with the entry dated July 20th, 1806, and is the last log of the Lady Nelson preserved at the Public Record Office. It is quite possible that others are in existence, either in England, or in Sydney, although the present writer has not been able to discover them.
It must not be supposed that the useful work performed by the little vessel ended at this date, as for years she continued to sail into and out of Port Jackson. For a short time Lieutenant Symons and her crew were turned over to the Estramina, the Spanish prize appropriated by Governor King, and used in the colonial service until 1817, when she was lost while coming out of the Hunter River with a cargo of coal.
But in November 1806 we again find the Lady Nelson carrying stores to Newcastle, and on her return voyage she brought Lieutenant Putland, R.N. (Governor Bligh's son-in-law), with other passengers, back from the Settlement.* (* Sydney Gazette, December, 1806.)
Shortly afterwards Mr. Symons joined H.M.S. Porpoise as Lieutenant, being appointed Commander of that ship in 1807, and the Lady Nelson was then placed in charge of Lieutenant William George Carlile Kent, who subsequently superseded Symons as Commander of the Porpoise by the orders of Governor Bligh.
In 1807 and 1808 the little ship's Commanders appear to have often changed, and her fortunes, like those of her officers, experienced a wave of uncertainty during the stormy period which marked the rule of Governor Bligh. Eventually by his orders the Lady Nelson was dismantled. It is well-known that Governor Bligh was deposed and kept a prisoner in his own house for twelve months by the officers of the New South Wales Corps. During this time the colony was governed by three officers, Johnston, Foveaux, and Paterson.
On the arrival of Major-General Macquarie from England to take over the reins of Government, he caused inquiries to be made concerning the use of the brig, to which Colonel Foveaux replied on January 10th, 1810, "I have the honour to inform your Excellency that the Lady Nelson brig was sent from England seven or eight years since by the Admiralty as an armed tender to the ship of war on this station. On the departure of H.M.S. Porpoise in March last, Commodore Bligh ordered her to be dismantled and laid up in ordinary in the King's Yard. The Commodore gave her in charge of Mr. Thomas Moore, the master builder, with directions to hand her over to Colonel Paterson should he require her for the service of the colony. Colonel Paterson applied for her immediately after the Porpoise sailed hence, manned her with hired seamen, and she has since continued in the employment of the Government for the use of these settlements."
From this time forward we hear of Governor Macquarie frequently taking excursions in the Lady Nelson, and in October 1811, he, with Mrs. Macquarie, proceeded in her to Van Diemen's Land, where he made an extensive tour of inspection of the settlements, and every Governor in turn seems to have used the brig for work of this character.
It is not easy to trace, subsequently, the doings of the Lady Nelson, and presumably for a year or two she lay dismantled in Sydney Harbour, and during that period is described as "nothing more or less than a Coal Hulk."