228
A VOYAGE TO
[East Coast.
1802.
May.
ship and in the dockyard. On the morning after our arrival, we warped to a convenient situation near the point, and sent on shore the tents, the sail-makers and sails, and the cooper with all the empty casks. Next day the observatory was set up, and the time keepers and other astronomical instruments placed there under the care of lieutenant Flinders; who, with Mr. Franklin his assistant, was to make the necessary observations and superintend the various duties carrying on at the same place; and a small detachment of marines was landed for the protection of the tents.
I had found the barricade of the quarter deck to stand so high, as to be not only an obstacle to beating to windward, but a great inconvenience to surveying the coast; for when the wind was on the side next to the land, there were no means of taking bearings over it but by standing on the top of the binnacle; or otherwise by removing the compass to different places, which I had found could not be done without materially changing the variation. These inconveniences being stated to the governor, his permission was obtained to reduce it so low as that it might be overlooked in all cases; and an order was given that four convict carpenters, and such other assistance from the dockyard should be furnished as was necessary. To supply the place of the cutter we had lost at the entrance of Spencer's Gulph, I contracted for a boat to be built after the model of that in which Mr. Bass made his long and adventurous expedition to the strait. It was twenty-eight feet seven inches in length over all, rather flat floored, head and stern alike, a keel somewhat curved, and the cut-water and stern post nearly upright; it was fitted to row eight oars when requisite, but intended for six in common cases. The timbers were cut from the largest kind of banksia, which had been found more durable than mangrove; and the planking was of cedar. This boat was constructed under the superintendance of Mr. Thomas Moore, master builder to the colony; and proved, like her prototype, to be excellent in a sea, as well as for rowing and sailing in smooth water. The cost at