Volume I Part 34 (1/2)
In beating out of the river the cutter leaked a good deal, which showed that our late repair at Careening Bay had not placed us without the pale of danger: and I now began to fear that the leak had been occasioned more from the defect of her fastenings than from the accident that happened to her keel; so that we were in every respect as badly off as before the cutter was careened. This made me decide upon instantly returning to Port Jackson; but it was with great regret that I found it necessary to resolve so; for the land to the westward appeared so indented as to render the necessity of our departure at this moment particularly vexatious.
October 14.
The next day therefore we pa.s.sed out to sea to the westward of Baudin's Keraudren Island.
The wind, upon leaving the coast, being West-South-West and West-North-West, carried us as far to the north as 11 degrees 43 minutes before we met with southerly winds; after which they gradually veered to the south-east trade.
October 30.
On the 30th at midnight we were upon the parallel of 19 degrees 33 minutes, on which the Tryal rocks have been said to exist; in order therefore to be on the safe side we tacked to the northward for four hours and then pa.s.sed back again until daylight when we resumed our course.
October 31.
At ten o'clock a.m. we were in the lat.i.tude a.s.signed to these rocks by the brig Greyhound, the master of which vessel, on his arrival at Port Jackson from China last year, published an account in the Sydney Gazette of his having seen them at a distance. Had he been certain of the fact he would not have hesitated to approach sufficiently near them to have made all on board sensible of their existence; but it appears that the greater part, if not the whole, of the crew were so obstinate that they either would not, or could not, see them.
Were the tracks of every vessel that has pa.s.sed over this part laid down, I think there would remain very little belief of their existence; in my own opinion I am convinced that there is no danger of the sort between the coast of New Holland and the meridian of 102 degrees east longitude.
The Dutch account records this danger to be forty miles in extent from east to west and fifteen miles in breadth; and the Danish account describes it to extend for twenty-four miles from north-east to south-west. Was there a danger of so considerable an extent in existence in the direct track of outward-bound China-s.h.i.+ps, it is hardly possible to conceive it could be pa.s.sed without having been repeatedly seen.
The existence of Cloates Island also, of which there are so many undeniable and particular descriptions, has been for a long time questioned by navigators; I think however there is no doubt that it does exist but that it is no other than the mainland to the southward of the North West Cape. The descriptions of this island by Captain Nash of the s.h.i.+p House of Austria, as well as that of the Haeslingfield in 1743, and subsequently by Captain Pelly, accord exactly with the appearance of this promontory; nor is the longitude much in error when we consider the strength of the currents which set to the north-west, during the easterly monsoon, in the s.p.a.ce between New Holland and Java. Captain Nash places Cloates Island 7 degrees 26 minutes East of Java Head, and the Haeslingfield 7 degrees 12 minutes; the mean of the two accounts is 7 degrees 19 minutes; the true difference of the meridians of Java Head and the North West Cape is 9 degrees 3 minutes, a difference only of 1 degree 44 minutes.
May not the Tryal Rocks also be some of the low islands that skirt the coast? The account of them by the Dutch sloop in 1718 places them in lat.i.tude 19 degrees 30 minutes and eighty leagues from the coast of New Holland; but, unless it is Bedout Island (a sandy islet seen by Captain Baudin, in longitude 118 degrees 50 minutes) there is no part of the coast that can at all accord with the description in respect to lat.i.tude.
The rocks seen by the Fredensberg Castle in 1777 are certainly the Montebello Isles, which answer the Dane's description exactly; for they are very low and rocky and abound in reefs, one of which extends a long distance to the north-west from Trimouille Island. There remains no doubt in my mind but that Barrow's Island and Trimouille Island, and the numerous reefs around them, are the identical Tryal Rocks which have been the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands for the two last centuries.* Captain Flinders** spent some days in an ineffectual search for them and has, I think, decidedly proved their non-existence between the parallels of 20 1/4 and 21 degrees, and the meridians of 103 1/2 and 106 1/2 degrees. The above islands accord exactly as to lat.i.tude; and the only argument against the probability of this supposition is their longitude; but during the month of July the current sets with great strength to the westward and might occasion considerable errors in s.h.i.+ps'
reckonings, which, in former days, were so imperfectly kept that no dependence can be placed upon them.
(*Footnote. The Tryal Rocks obtained their name from the English s.h.i.+p Tryal, said to have been lost upon them in 1622 (vide Horsburg's Indian Directory volume 1 page 100). This danger having been once laid down will, perhaps, never be erased from the chart, although it is generally believed not to exist. It has been placed in various positions according to the account which the compiler gives most credence to. In Arrowsmith's large chart of the South Sea it is laid down in 20 degrees 40 minutes South and 104 1/2 degrees East.)
(**Footnote. Flinders volume 2 pages 261 to 263.)
1820. November 1.
The following afternoon the man at the masthead reported breakers in the West-North-West, and when I went to examine from thence I was for some time equally deceived: the helm was put up and we bore down towards them but, as we approached, they vanished and we found we had been deceived by the reflection of the sun's rays upon the water.* After being sufficiently a.s.sured of our mistake, the course was resumed.
(*Footnote. The deceptious appearances that are frequently observed at sea, such as the reflection of the sun, ripplings occasioned by the meeting of two opposite currents, whales asleep upon the surface of the water, shoals of fish, fog-banks, and the extraordinary effect of mirage, than which, as an optical illusion, nothing is more deceiving, have doubtless given birth to many of these non-existing shoals and islands.
Were charts to be published (one does exist in ma.n.u.script, in the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty) with all the islands and dangers laid down that have been reported by good and respectable authorities, the navigator would be in a constant fever of anxiety and alarm for the safety of his vessel. The charts of the present day teem with examples of this sort and many islands and reefs are laid down which have not been seen since their first discovery, and which perhaps never existed at all, unless, like Sabrina Island, they were thrown up by a submarine volcano, and disappeared immediately afterwards.)
November 2.
And by the following noon we had pa.s.sed the parallel of the southernmost limit a.s.signed to these redoubtable rocks.
When we were on the starboard tack two nights before, the cutter leaked so much that we were upwards of an hour pumping out the water that had collected in three hours.