Smith.— Exploration of Tasman Bay. 439 



before the anchors could be let go, the bow of the vessel was 

 not more than a few fathoms off the rocks of the coast. She 

 was rushing on to the point with all the swiftness of the cur- 

 rent. To deaden the violence of the blow, I sent the long- 

 boat with a tow-line, and at the same instant the anchor was 

 let go. Although the anchor was apeak, it held us afloat ; but 

 it could not protect the ship from grazing if the whirlpool in 

 which she was had again made her turn right round twice or 

 thrice, with the depth of 7 or 8 fathoms, at not many feet from 

 the rocks. It was now noon ; M. Jacquinot had gone ashore 

 in the long-boat to observe the sun, and all these movements 

 had been so rapidly made that that officer had not observed 

 them till all were terminated. The lesser anchor was imme- 

 diately placed in the long-boat, and carried outside to the dis- 

 tance of a short cable ; but, although strongly manned, and 

 towed by the yawl, the boat, carried by the current, could 

 only with difficulty carry it out some 30 or 40 fathoms. How- 

 ever, as soon as we had the end of the cable we hauled on it, 

 dragging after us the large anchor, which by good luck had not 

 held. Towards an hour after noon we found ourselves nearly 

 apeak over the small anchor and at 20 fathoms from the coast. 



Anxious to give to each of our collaborators the means of 

 utilising his time, I at once sent to the neighbouring shore the 

 naturalists and the artist of the expedition, also MM. Guilbert and 

 Paris. These two latter each climbed the summit of a hill which 

 overlooked both Tasman and Admiralty Bays, in order to obtain 

 an exact view of their details, and make observations useful for 

 the geography of the strait. In thus acting I had a double 

 end in view — that of utilising the zeal of persons whose pre- 

 sence aboard was of no use in the manoeuvres we had to make, 

 and, above all, to impress the crew with the fact that, notwith- 

 standing the dangers we were incurring, the work was carried 

 on as if we were under the happiest circumstances in our naviga- 

 tion. It was the course I constantly followed, and I believe it 

 to be indispensable, especially with individixals so pusillanimous 

 as were most of our crew. 



Whilst our companions were usefully occupied ashore, on 

 board we redoubled our efforts to place the corvette in safety. 

 The long-boat, having taken on board two short cables and a 

 stream-anchor, departed to place it as far out as possible, but, 

 always mastered by the current, which carried them towards 

 Tasman Bay, they could not take it further than a cable's length 

 from the shore. We hauled on it, at the same time slacking out 

 on the other, but the current caused it to become entangled 

 with the large anchor, which was dragging. The cables, the 

 short cables, and the buoy-ropes were so thoroughly twisted 



