After much deliberation what conduct he ought to pursue
under these circumstances, as it was impossible, with such a vessel, he
could at that season return to Port Jackson by the west route, in
consequence of the monsoon (and the stormy weather would render the east
passage equally improper) he resolved to finish the survey of the Gulf of
Carpentaria. This occupied him three months: at the end of this period he
was obliged, by the sickness of his crew, to sail for Timor, which he
reached on the 31st of March, 1803.
As the Investigator was no longer fit for service, she was condemned.
Captain Flinders resolved, as he could not finish the survey, to return to
England, in order to lay his journals and charts before the Admiralty: he
accordingly embarked on board the Porpoise store ship, which, in company
with the Cato and Bridgwater, bound to Batavia, sailed in August, 1803. The
Porpoise and Cato were wrecked on a reef of rocks nearly 800 miles from
Botany Bay: most of the charts, logs, and astronomical observations were
saved; but the rare plants, as well as the dried specimens, were lost or
destroyed. On the 26th of August, Captain Flinders left the reef in the
cutter, and after a passage of considerable danger, reached Port Jackson on
the 8th of September. As he was extremely anxious to lodge his papers as
soon as possible with the Lords of the Admiralty, he embarked from Port
Jackson in a vessel, something less than a Gravesend passage boat, being
only 29 tons burden.
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