Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/264

38

erroneous in the position of this point; but that 34° 23′, as assigned to it by captain King, was correct.

At one o'clock we hauled round the rocks which lie off the Cape Point, and steered into False Bay. Near these rocks were two whales; and one or more of what seamen call thrashers were engaged in a furious combat with them, at a less distance than half a mile from the ship. The sinewy strength of the thrasher must be very great; for besides raising his tail high out of the water to beat the adversary, he occasionally threw the whole of his vast body several feet above the surface, apparently to fall upon him with greater force. Their struggles covered the sea with foam for many fathoms round.

At three o'clock we got sight of the squadron lying in Simon's Bay. It consisted of His Majesty's ships Lancaster, Jupiter, Diomede, Imperieuse, Hindoostan, Rattlesnake, and Euphrosyne, under the command of vice-admiral sir Roger Curtis, Bart. The master of the Lancaster came on board to pilot the ship to a proper berth, and I went on shore to wait upon the vice-admiral. On showing my orders, and presenting an account of the supplies and the work requisite to put the Investigator in the same state as on leaving England, I found that the naval magazines could furnish only some part, and that many articles, especially biscuit, were not to be obtained; but with great consideration for the service on which I was sent out, the commander in chief ordered every request to be granted either in the articles specified, or by substitution; and a thorough caulking, both within and without side of the ship, being the work most essential to be done, a gang of caulkers, collected from the squadron, was sent on board on the following morning.

The water which is conducted in pipes to the wharf, for the convenience of shipping, was said not to keep well at sea; and the master of the Lancaster, from whom this information was obtained, recommended, as much superior, that which drains through the