224 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
of very large whales ” on the passage out, and 
in July, 1790, while writing home on the vast 
potentialities for wealth that existed for those 
who would enter upon the business of whaling, 
mentioned that only a few days previously “ a 
large spermacetty whale ” had made its appear¬ 
ance in Sydney Harbour, capsized a boat and 
drowned a midshipman and two marines. 
In the month of October, 1791, a convict 
transport named the Britannia , and owned by 
Mr. Enderby, arrived in Sydney Cove with her 
cargo of misery. She formed one of the “Third 
Fleet,” and was commanded by a Mr. Thomas 
Melville. In the “ Historical Records of New 
South Wales” there is a despatch from Governor 
Phillip which embodies a letter from Mr. 
Melville to his enterprising owners, the Messrs. 
Enderby, from which we learn that the Bri¬ 
tannia ., after doubling the south-west cape of 
Van Dieman’s Land, “saw a huge sperm whale 
off Maria Island,” but saw no more till within 
fifteen leagues of Port Jackson, when there 
came great numbers about the ship. “ We 
sailed through different shoals of them from 
twelve o’clock in the day until after sunset. 
They were all round the horizon as far as we 
