A big-hearted little tall ship

Ships sometimes assume heroic proportions in the histories of seafaring nations. This was as true in Australia as anywhere else in the first hundred years or so of our development, when the oceans were valuable highways to us.

One ship we should remember better than we do was His Majesty's armed survey vessel "Lady Nelson". She was by some accounts an ugly freak of a boat, but others, including Governor Macquarie, said that she rode well and stayed dry in even the worst weather.

Whatever the truth, she helped us find a route through Bass Strait, explore Western Port and discover Port Phillip Bay. Though she did much more, those three things alone have ensured her place in our history.

She was built for such work. Captain John Schank came to the belief that large vessels should have sliding keel boards, like small racing yachts, and that this system could allow ships to work close inshore for survey and exploration work. This man was the one after whom Cape Schank was named.

A test ship was built and the idea was proven. There was an urgent need for such a ship in New South Wales and the "Lady Nelson" was built in 1799; 16 metres long and a little over five metres wide. She had two square-rigged masts and it was often said that she'd have been more manageable if she'd been rigged as a schooner.

When she was launched, Lieutenant James Grant was made her commander. The ship was ridiculed at first. After all, she was shorter than a cricket pitch and had several new design features.
She ran into a gale on her voyage from the Thames to Portsmouth, and Grant was delighted with her performance. There were leaks in her decking, but otherwise she was in excellent shape.

She left Portsmouth on February 18, 1800, with a convoy bound for the West Indies for protection; England then being at war with Spain and France. She couldn't sail as fast as the bigger ships in rough weather and the "Brunswick" was ordered to take her in tow.

The big merchantman towed the "Lady Nelson" through wave after wave, threatening to swamp her, so Grant ordered the towline cast off and made his way southward alone.

She took on water and stores in the Cape Verde islands and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope with two of her three keels damaged by storms.
While making repairs, Grant was brought a letter which ordered him to follow up on George Bass' discovery of the Strait. There were no charts and no navigational aids available for the area, but Grant was told to pass through it on his way to Port Jackson (Sydney).

On October 7, 1800, she left the Cape and headed out into the Indian Ocean.
His Australian landfall was made on December 3 and Grant began to explore the coastline. He passed through what became Governor King's Bay, not realising that this large "indentation" led to Port Phillip. Grant incurred the wrath of Philip Gidley King, the Governor, for not having explored the bay. He was known as a fine seaman and a good captain, but not a good drawer of maps.

King thought the bay important and sent Grant back again to carry out his orders more fully. He was given a soldier, Barellier, who was a surveyor, and a crew made up for the most part of the better type of convicts, all offered a pardon if the voyage was successful.

On March 31, 1801, the ship was lying off Churchill Island in Western Port. This was when Grant planted the crops and built the blockhouse, which gave Churchill Island the right to claim having Victoria's first building and first crops.
The weather soon became very bad and Grant went back to Sydney, where King was even less pleased with him than before.

Grant said that he knew little about surveying and wanted to go back to England. King agreed and placed Jonathan Murray in command of the ship.
Murray had been second-in-command on the voyage out from England. He brought his new command back to Western Port and then pushed westward.

On January 5, 1802, he saw the entrance to Port Phillip. Bad weather and some natural caution sent him back to Western Port and it was not until February 15 that the "Lady Nelson" sailed into the Bay, anchoring near Sorrento. The ship was in Port Phillip until March 11 exploring the waters and the coastline.

Murray, incidentally, named the water Port King. Governor King, on the other hand, wanted to honour Arthur Phillip and so he gave it the name Port Phillip Bay. His own name is used for the waters outside the Heads.

How important was the work of the "Lady Nelson" so far? She had proven an eastward passage of the Strait. She had explored Western Port (though Bass and Baudin/Hamelin had already charted much of it). And, she had brought to notice Governor King's Bay (Bight?) and then Port Phillip Bay.

She should rank for these alone alongside "Endeavour", "Supply", "Sirius" and even "Tom Thumb" and yet she has often been overlooked.
Nor did her work stop there. She went north along the coast of Queensland with Matthew Flinders' "Investigator" but hit a reef and had to return to Sydney.

She helped move David Collins from his Sorrento campsite to Van Diemen's Land.
In 1805, she fired a shot across the bows of a ship in Jarvis Bay when that ship failed to identify herself. This was the first shot "fired in anger" in Australian waters.

She made more surveys along the coast, including the Coal River (Newcastle), and she acted as a supply vessel. She went to New Zealand several times in 1804.
She took Lachlan Macquarie north to inspect outlying settlements along the coast. Repaired, she surveyed Port Macquarie for the penal settlement to be built there and, two years later, she went on the rocks at that port. She lay there some time but was evidently salvaged because she was later used to supply the settlement on Melville Island.

She disappeared while on a voyage to Timor for supplies for Melville Island. It seems that she might have been taken by natives of islands east of Timor and run aground and burnt. It is unlikely that we'll ever know the truth.

She was a busy and valuable little boat and she should be remembered better, especially by Victorians and even more especially by Gippslanders. She did more than any other ship to open up ports along the coast and to find channels into those ports.
Acknowledgement: "The Unsung Immortal", Tony Dunlap, 1977.