146 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



four in number) of the crews of the " Porpoise " and " Cato " got on 

 a dry sandbank. They saved what they could from the stranded 

 " Porpoise" including three months' provisions and sails to make 

 tents, but the " Cato " had disappeared. 



On 2$tb August, Flinders took three weeks' rations and left for 

 Sydney, with Captain Park, of the " Cato" and twelve men, in a 

 six-oared boat. The men left on the sandbank did fairly well on 

 the rations saved from the " Porpoise" supplemented by fish and 

 turtle, and they built a boat of 32 feet keel, which was ready for 

 launching early in October. 



Flinders arrived in SYDNEY on 8tb September, his boat having 

 rowed 700 miles in fourteen days, and reported the disaster to 

 Governor King. It was planned that Captain Cummings, of the 

 " Rolla" a 438-ton ship bound for Canton, should call at the reef 

 and take some of the shipwrecked men to his destination, while 

 the " Francis " was to bring the rest back to Sydney. Flinders was 

 to take command of the " Cumberland" a 29-ton schooner, and sail 

 her to England, with his charts and papers. 



The flotilla left PORT JACKSON on 2ist September and reached 

 the sandbank on yth October. Flinders selected to go with him on 

 the " Cumberland " John Aken, late Master of the " Investigator" 

 Edward Charrington, Boatswain, John Elder, Steward, and seven 

 seamen; and, on nth October the three ships sailed for their 

 respective destinations. From the first, the " Cumberland " 

 proved an unseaworthy craft. (SEE MAP A.) Flinders took her 

 through TORRES STRAIT, past MURRAY ISLAND (see Inset Map on 

 Plate 13, Terra Australis Atlas) on 22nd October, and thence, not 

 far from his track in the " Investigator " a year earlier, but a little 

 to the south, through what is now known as CUMBERLAND PASSAGE, 

 and between HORN l and WEDNESDAY ISLANDS (24th October), 

 north of HAMMOND ISLAND, and westward through PRINCE OF 

 WALES CHANNEL, north of BOOBY ISLAND, and westward, via 

 Arnhem Land, towards TIMOR, which was reached on loth 

 November. 



Flinders had originally planned to call at Koepang, in Timor, 

 Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and the Canaries ; 

 but by King's desire Mauritius was cut out of the programme. As 

 it happened, there were no facilities for repairs at Koepang, and 

 Flinders therefore left, with his ship unrepaired, for the Cape. 

 Bad weather shortly afterwards compelled him, in spite of himself, 

 to run to the Mauritius for shelter : moreover, he doubted if it 

 would be safe to complete the voyage in the " Cumberland" and 



1 Flinders did not actually give this name, but referred to " a hill forming something 

 like two horns at the top." This hill appeared to him to be on PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND 

 itself, but as he approached it from the north-east he got a glimpse of a bight, which 

 must have been the " BOAT PASSAGE " separating what is now called HORN ISLAND 

 from Prince of Wales Island. Flinders, as well as Cook, passed north of ALBANY ISLAND, 

 taking it for part of the mainland. 



