Hocken. — On the Derelict Ship in Dusky Bay. 425 



hitherto been able to assign a use for this article. It is 

 parallelopiped, open at one end (which is very much broken), 

 and measures 3 feet 3 inches in height by 13 inches in breadth. 

 Its secret remains as unsolved as that of many a monolith. 

 My own impression is that it was used to convey bullion. One 

 ancient mariner, long ago engaged in the Indian trade, to whom 

 I applied for a solution, said that gunpowder, first protected by 

 flannel bags, was encased in such boxes. But the fact of its 

 being of iron all but positively negatives such an explanation. 



Such is a statement of all the facts connected with our 

 subject, so far as I have been able to gather them. What 

 conclusion can be drawn from them? It seems higbly probable 

 that the conjecture offered by a correspondent in the "Australian 

 Shipping News" of 1878 is correct — viz., that the wreck is that 

 of the ship Endeavour, Captain Bampton, bound from Sydney 

 to India, in 1795. In those early days of the convict settle- 

 ment, large supplies of cattle, food, and stores were brought to 

 it from India ; and about this time an occasional return vessel 

 would load at New Zealand, principally the Thames, with spars 

 and masts for the use of the East India Company's service. 

 This was the germ of an extensive trade of this sort. 



The results of a good deal of research have proved so in- 

 teresting, and have brought so many forgotten facts to light 

 connected with the very early history of New Zealand, that I 

 shall not hesitate to interweave some of them into this portion 

 of my notes, especially as they confirm the identity of this 

 phantom ship. 



Captain Cook, on the occasion of his second voyage to New 

 Zealand, in 1773, stayed for six weeks in Dusky Bay. His 

 interesting description of this visit is accompanied by a re- 

 markably accurate chart. In few places in New Zealand did 

 he find such plentiful refreshments as here, and he recommends 

 any vessel going southward, and needing a haven, to make for 

 it, as with the prevailing winds it is easily entered and easily 

 left. It is therefore certain that in those early days any storm- 

 stressed mariner steering south would seek this only-known 

 haven. 



The whale fishery in these seas had its first origin in October, 

 1791, when five of the transport vessels, after discharging their 

 convict freight, and acting upon instructions received before 

 leaving England, commenced to whale along the coast of New 

 South Wales. Owing to various causes, which need not be 

 recited here, their success was not very great, although fish 

 were seen in great numbers. It was not long before the whalers 

 went further afield. The first to visit Dusky Bay was the 

 Britannia, Captain Baven, belonging to the great shipping 

 firm of the Messrs. Enderby. After her departure from Sydney 

 she touched at Dusky Bay, in October, 1792, where she left 



