And we do further declare, that we have taken this survey with such care and circumspection, that we are ready, if required, to make oath to the veracity and impartiality of our proceedings.

Given under our hands on board the said ship in Sydney Cove, this 14th June 1803.

(Signed) W. Scott, Commander of H. M. armed vessel Porpoise.

E. H. Palmer, Commander of the Hon. East-India-Company’s extra ship
Bridgewater.

Thomas Moore, Master builder to the Territory of New South Wales.

I went round the ship with the officers in their examination, and was excessively surprised to see the state of rottenness in which the timbers were found.  In the starbord bow there were thirteen close together, through any one of which a cane might have been thrust; and it was on this side that the ship had made twelve inches of water in an hour, in Torres’ Strait, before the first examination.  In the passage along the South Coast, the strong breezes were from the southward, and the starbord bow being out of the water, the leaks did not exceed five inches; had the wind come from the northward, the little exertion we were then capable of making at the pumps could hardly have kept the ship up; and a hard gale from any quarter must have sent us to the bottom.

The Investigator being thus found incapable of further service, various plans were suggested, and discussed with the governor, for prosecuting the voyage; but that which alone could be adopted without incurring a heavy expense to government, was to employ the armed vessel Porpoise; and as this ship was too small to carry all my complement, with the necessary provisions, to put the remainder into the Lady Nelson, under the command of my second lieutenant.  Both vessels were at this time required for a few weeks colonial service to Van Diemen’s Land; and my people not being in a state to fit out a new ship immediately, our final arrangements were deferred until their return.  I took this opportunity of making an excursion to the Hawkesbury settlement, near the foot of the back mountains; and the fresh air there, with a vegetable diet and medical care, soon made a great alteration in the scorbutic sores which had disabled me for four months; and in the beginning of July I returned to the ship, nearly recovered.  The sick in the hospital were also convalescent, and some had quitted it; but one or two cases still remained doubtful.

4 JULY 1803

On the 4th, the Porpoise arrived from Van Diemen’s Land, and I requested the governor would order her to be surveyed, that it might be duly known whether she were, or could be in a short time made, capable of executing the service which remained to be done.  I had heard some reports of her being unsound; and it seemed worse than folly to be at the trouble and expense of fitting out a ship which, besides causing a repetition of the risk we had incurred in the Investigator, might still leave the voyage unfinished.  His