The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant — Context and Discussion

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In Category - Modern Nations

Authors: Lee, Ida, 1865-1943 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Grant, James, 1771 or 2-1833; Lady Nelson (Ship) Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 89,618

Reading time 390 min

Text sections 9

This digital edition of The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant — Context and Discussion is described by source-level measurements including 89,618 words, 6 hr 30 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #7509

Ida Lee compiles the logbooks of the Lady Nelson, a British discovery ship in Australian waters, with Lieutenant James Grant's journal. The volume reveals the vessel's role in early surveys, settlements, and the challenges of coastal navigation through fading handwritten records and rediscovered charts.

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THE LADY NELSON BUILT WITH CENTREBOARDS. HER VOYAGE TO SYDNEY UNDER JAMES GRANT. THE FIRST SHIP TO PASS THROUGH BASS STRAIT.

RETURNS TO EXPLORE THE STRAIT. HER VISITS TO JERVIS BAY AND TO WESTERN PORT IN 1801.

COLONEL PATERSON AND LIEUTENANT GRANT SURVEY HUNTER RIVER.

MURRAY APPOINTED COMMANDER OF THE LADY NELSON. HIS VOYAGE TO NORFOLK ISLAND.

MURRAY'S EXPLORATION OF BASS STRAIT.

DISCOVERY OF PORT PHILLIP.

THE LADY NELSON IN COMPANY WITH H.M.S. INVESTIGATOR EXAMINES THE NORTH-EASTERN SHORES OF AUSTRALIA.

THE FRENCH SHIPS IN BASS STRAIT. THE FOUNDING OF HOBART.

SYMONS SUCCEEDS CURTOYS AS COMMANDER OF THE LADY NELSON. HIS VOYAGES TO PORT PHILLIP, TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

THE LADY NELSON IN TASMANIA. THE FOUNDING OF PORT DALRYMPLE.

THE ESTRAMINA IS BROUGHT TO SYDNEY. THE LADY NELSON VISITS NORFOLK ISLAND AND PORT DALRYMPLE.

TIPPAHEE AND HIS FOUR SONS ARE CONVEYED TO NEW ZEALAND IN THE LADY NELSON.

THE LADY NELSON ACCOMPANIES H.M.S. TAMAR TO MELVILLE ISLAND.

THE LOSS OF THE LADY NELSON.

1. THE LADY NELSON. From a painting in the possession of the Victorian Government.

2. LIEUTENANT JAMES GRANT'S CHART OF THE AUSTRALIAN COAST.

[Jas Grant autograph facsimile.]

3. EYE-SKETCH OF THE LADY NELSON'S TRACK ON HER FIRST VOYAGE THROUGH BASS STRAIT. Drawn by Governor King. Writing of this chart, he says that the longitude in which Lieutenant Grant placed Cape Otway was about a degree and a half in error. He also made the land to trend away on the west side of Cape Otway to a deep bay, which he named Portland Bay. An examination of modern maps will show that the name Portland Bay has been retained for a bay to the westward of Grant's Portland Bay, which is now called Armstrong Bay.

Chart of the track of His Majesty's Armoured Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson Lieutenant James Grant Commander. From Bass's Straits between New Holland and Van Diemen's Land on her passage from England to Port Jackson. By Order of His Grace The Duke of Portland. In December 1800.

4. CHART OF WESTERN PORT SURVEYED BY ENSIGN BARRALLIER IN 1801.

5. CHART OF BASS STRAIT SHOWING THE DISCOVERIES MADE BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 1800 AND MARCH 1802. Drawn by Ensign Barrallier, New South Wales Corps, under the direction of Captain P.G. King, Governor of New South Wales." This chart is generally referred to as "Barrallier's Combined Chart." King doubtless alludes to it when writing to the Duke of Portland in May 1802. See Historical Records of New South Wales volume 4 page 761.)

(CHART OF KING'S ISLAND IN BASS'S STRAIT. This earliest chart of King Island was drawn by Alexander Dalrymple from a sketch made by Flinders of Murray's original chart. Flinders added to it the west coast unseen by Murray, though it had been sighted by both Black and Buyers. The details given by Flinders were supplied by William Campbell, master of the Harrington, who, in March 1802, found a quantity of wreckage there. Nothing remained to show the name of the lost vessel, nor was any clue subsequently discovered by which she could be identified. The Harrington lay at anchor at New Year's Isles for over two months, but could not trace the nationality of the vessel or her crew except in the language of the Harrington's captain, "one dead English cat." See Historical Records of New South Wales volume 4 page 780.)

6. THE LADY NELSON AND THE FRANCIS SCHOONER ENTERING HUNTER RIVER.

7. COAL HARBOUR (NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES), SURVEYED BY ENSIGN BARRALLIER IN 1801.

Coal Harbour and Rivers on the Coast of New South Wales. Surveyed by Ensign Barrallier, in His Majesty's Armed Surveying Vessel Lady Nelson: Lieutenant James Grant Commander. In June and July 1801, by Order of Governor King.

High Water Full and Change in the Harbour 9 hours 45 minutes. Rises 6 feet.

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The Lady Nelson was a small brig, but her logbooks record an outsized role in Australian coastal discovery. Ida Lee, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, compiled these documents to preserve records that were already becoming illegible. The volume includes Lieutenant James Grant's journal and the logs of subsequent commanders Murray, Curtoys, and Symons, drawn from the Public Record Office. Lee notes that Murray's charts, long thought lost, were rediscovered in the Admiralty Library and reunited with his journal. The result is a work that foregrounds the ship's practical missions—surveying, settlement founding, and exploration—rather than dramatic narrative.

Fading Handwriting and Editorial Choices

Lee states plainly that the handwriting in some logbooks is “so faded that it is already difficult to decipher.” This physical fragility drove the publication. Her editorial method is selective: she modernized spelling where old forms obscured sense and omitted repetitions, as including the entire contents of the logbooks was impossible within a single volume. For Grant's journal, she sometimes paraphrased diary entries, while the logs of later commanders are printed verbatim with specified omissions. This layered approach means the reader encounters both paraphrased narrative and direct transcription, a mix that reflects the editor's effort to balance readability with fidelity.

A Ship Tested by Reef and Keel

The excerpts show the Lady Nelson repeatedly pushed to its limits. During a joint voyage with Flinders's Investigator, the brig lost its main keel and part of the after keel, reducing its ability to beat to windward. Flinders wrote that she “sailed so ill” and “ran great risk of being lost.” After separation, commander Murray resorted to lashing two swivel guns together as a makeshift anchor to spare the vessel's sole remaining anchor, while the carpenter fashioned an ironbark replacement. These details—keel damage, improvised anchors, and the constant threat of loss—underscore the material strain of discovery work in shallow, reef-strewn waters.

Navigating by Light and Signal

The log entries from July 1802 reveal a pattern of cautious seamanship. The Lady Nelson was ordered to keep ahead of the Investigator at night and “show a light now and then.” When the ships lost contact, the brig fired guns and hoisted lights at the masthead, but received no answer. The log records a near-collision with a high headland obscured by clouds—Point Danger—which the crew cleared “with much difficulty.” These passages, rendered in the terse language of a ship's log, convey the constant negotiation between visibility, weather, and proximity to land. The reliance on signals and the frequent mention of squalls and currents give a precise sense of the navigational challenges faced.

Readers should approach this volume as a curated archive rather than a continuous narrative. The juxtaposition of paraphrased journal and verbatim log entries means that tone and detail shift between sections. Pay attention to the editorial notes and the condition of the original documents—they are part of the story. The rediscovery of Murray's charts, mentioned in the preface, adds a cartographic dimension that complements the textual record.

Reading the faded logbook entries, I remembered my grandfather’s charts, margins filled with penciled depth soundings—lonely marks against the unknown. That same quiet patience surfaced in the Memoirs of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz — Volume 4 — Inside the Classic, where every political turn felt like navigating a reef, the old handwriting still carrying the chill of the original risk.