1T4 
A VOYAGE TO 
{North Coast. 
1802 , 
December. 
Sir Edward Pellew’s Group, as will be seen by a reference to the 
plan, affords numerous anchorages against both the south-east and 
north-west monsoon ; but unless it should be within the two small 
isles near the south-west side of Vanderlin’s Island, where the depth 
was not well ascertained, there is not a single harbour, the different 
bays and coves being too shallow to admit a ship. Wood for 
fuel is easy to be procured ; and water may be had in December, 
and probably as late as April or May, but I think not afterwards. 
The most accessible watering place we could find, was at the back 
of the mangroves near our principal anchorage, within the east 
point of North Island, where, with some trouble, our casks were 
filled ; and at a beach there, left dry at low water, the seine was 
hauled with some success. At Vanderlin’s Island there are many 
beaches fit for the seine ; and indeed it seemed superior to the other 
islands as well for this, as for every other purpose, when a ship can 
lie there ; it is also the most frequented by the Indians, and may 
probably have fixed inhabitants. 
The latitude of Observation Island, from two 
meridian altitudes to the north and south, is 15 0 36' 46" S. 
Longitude from six sets of distances of the sun 
east of the moon, given in Table IV. of 
Appendix No. 1, 137 0 6' 42" ; but by the time 
keeper No. 543 corrected, it is preferably 137 3 15 E, 
The rates of the time keepers were found from afternoon’s 
altitudes in an artificial horizon, between the 16th and 26th ; and 
the means, with their errors from mean Greenwich time, at noon 
there on the last day of observation, were as under : 
Earnshaw’s No. 543, slow 2 h 2 9' 11", 17 and losing 14", 93 per day 
520, - 4 11 37 ,59 - - 28 ,25 
This rate of No. 543 is only o",it) more than that found at Sweers’ 
Island, and so far as the six sets of lunars may be relied on, the 
longitude by this time keeper was not far from the truth ; the letting 
down on the passage therefore did not seem to have produced any 
