month, eight days after her departure from Sydney Cove, she lost her bowsprit by plunging into a head sea; nor was it until the 13th July that her voyage could be resumed. Seven days afterwards she got aground on the south side of Port Bowen, and received very serious damage. On the 24th of the latter month, the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies wrote to Lieutenant King as follows:–
“Sir,– I have laid before Lord Bathurst your letter of the 26th Feb. 1820, transmitting the charts of your first voyage of survey on the coasts of New Holland, and a brief account of your second voyage; and I am directed by his lordship to acquaint you that the manner in which you have, up to the period from which your letter is dated, discharged the duty entrusted to you, has been highly satisfactory to him. I am, &c.
On the 16th Aug. 1820, the Mermaid reached Booby Island, in Torres Strait; and on the 5th Sept., passed Cape Voltaire, at which point the preceding year’s survey had terminated. To the westward of this position, Lieutenant King counted twenty-three islands, the northernmost of which he supposes to be the Montalivet Isles of Baudin: another group, near a fine harbour which he entered on the 20th Sept., and named Port Nelson, he called the Coronation Islands. The state of the Mermaid at this period is thus described in his journal:–
“Notwithstanding we had constantly experienced,, since the period of our leaving the east coast, both fine weather and smooth water, yet the leaky state of the vessel had been gradually increasing; leading me to fear that the injury received at Port Bowen had been much more serious than we had then contemplated. Having the advantage of smooth water and a fair wind during our passage up the east coast, the damage had not shewn itself until we reached Cairncross Island: after this it was occasionally observed, but with more or less effect according to the strength and direction of the wind, and the state of the sea. At the anchorage off Booby Island, being exposed to a swell, she made four inches of water in an hour; and, in passing round Cape Torrens, the vessel being pressed down in the water from the freshness of the sea-breeze, it gained as much as nine inches in one hour and twenty minutes. From the alarming increase of the leak, it became absolutely necessary to ascertain the full extent of the damage, in order that we might, if possible, repair it, so as not to prevent the further prosecution of the voyage, or at least to ensure our return to Port Jackson.
