We found also at Port Jackson Mr. James Inman (the present professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth), whom the Board of Longitude had sent out to join the expedition as astronomer, in the place of Mr. Crosley who had left us at the Cape of Good Hope. To this gentleman's care I committed all the larger astronomical instruments, and also the time keepers, after observations had been taken to compare their longitudes with that of Cattle Point. The results obtained on the 10th a.m., with the Goose-island-Bay rates, were,
From No. 543, 151° 18' 41" east.
From No. 520, 151 16 22 east.
Cattle Point having been settled in 151° 11' 49" (see Vol. I.), the mean error of the time keepers was 5' 42.5" to the east; and as I have no means to form an accelerating correction to the Goose-Island Bay rates, the 5' 42.5" of error has been equally apportioned throughout the twenty days between the two stations.
In order to re-establish the health of the ship's company, I contracted for a regular supply of vegetables and fresh meat; and such was the favourable change in the state of the colony in one year, that the meat, pork one day and mutton another, was obtained at the average price of 10d. per pound, which before, if it could have been obtained, would have cost nearly double the sum. On my application to the governor, the commissary was ordered to supply us with two pipes of port wine; and a pint was given daily to all those on board, as well as on shore, whose debilitated health was judged by the surgeon to require it.
The arrangements being made which concerned the health of the ship's company, I inclosed to the governor the report of the master and carpenter upon the state of the ship when in the Gulph of Carpentaria; and requested that he would appoint officers to make a survey of her condition. A plank was ripped off all round, a little above the water's edge; and on the 14th, the officers appointed by His Excellency made the survey, and their report was as follows:
Pursuant to an order from His Excellency Philip Gidley King, esquire, principal commander of His Majesty's ship Buffalo.
We whose names are hereunto subscribed, have been on board His Majesty's ship Investigator, and taken a strict, careful, and minute survey of her defects, the state of which we find to be as follows.
One plank immediately above the wales being ripped off all round the ship, we began the examination on the larbord side forward; and out of ninety-eight timbers we find eleven to be sound, so far as the ripping off of one plank enables us to see into them, ten of which are amongst the aftermost timbers. Sixty-three of the remaining timbers are so far rotten as to make it necessary to shift them; and the remaining twenty-four entirely rotten, and these are principally in the bow and the middle of the ship.
On the starbord side forward we have minutely examined eighty-nine timbers, out of which we find only five sound; fifty-six are so far decayed as to require shifting, and the remaining twenty-eight are entirely rotten. The sound timbers are in the after part of the ship, and those totally decayed lie principally in the bow.
The stemson is so far decayed, principally in its outer part, as to make it absolutely necessary to be shifted.
As far as we could examine under the counter, both plank and timbers are rotten, and consequently necessary to be shifted.
We find generally, that the plank on both sides is so far decayed as to require shifting, even had the timbers been sound.
The above being the state of the Investigator thus far, we think it altogether unnecessary to make any further examination; being unanimously of opinion that she is not worth repairing in any country, and that it is impossible in this country to put her in a state fit for going to sea.
And we do further declare, that we have taken this survey with such care and circumspection, that we are ready, if required, to make oath to the veracity and impartiality of our proceedings.
Given under our hands on board the said ship in Sydney Cove, this 14th June 1803.
(Signed) W. Scott, Commander of H. M. armed vessel Porpoise.
E. H. Palmer, Commander of the Hon. East-India-Company's extra ship Bridgewater.
Thomas Moore, Master builder to the Territory of New South Wales.
I went round the ship with the officers in their examination, and was excessively surprised to see the state of rottenness in which the timbers were found. In the starbord bow there were thirteen close together, through any one of which a cane might have been thrust; and it was on this side that the ship had made twelve inches of water in an hour, in Torres' Strait, before the first examination. 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 twelve months; and even then this ship was, from her small size and sharp construction, very ill adapted to this service. Other arrangements were therefore suggested; and I received the following letter of propositions from the governor.