At dusk in the evening, when we returned on board, I found the Lady Nelson at anchor near us, and two boats absent from the ship.  In hauling them up to be hoisted in, the cutter had been upset from the rapidity of the tides, which ran above four knots, the man in her was thrown out, and the boat went adrift.  The man was taken up by the Lady Nelson; but the boatswain, who with two men in a small gig had gone after the cutter, was not heard of till next morning [FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 1802], when he returned without any intelligence of his object, having been bewildered in the dark by the rapid tides in a strange place, and in danger of losing himself.

[EAST COAST. SHOAL-WATER BAY.]

On weighing the kedge anchor to go further up the passage, it came up broken near the crown, having in all probability hooked a rock.  The Lady Nelson went one mile ahead, a boat was kept sounding close to the ship, and in this manner we drifted up with the flood tide, till half past eight; when another kedge anchor was dropped in 7 fathoms, a short mile from the land on each side, and two from the inner end of the opening.  Lieutenant Fowler was immediately sent away in the whale boat, to search for the lost cutter; and in the mean time we weighed with the afternoon’s flood, to get through the passage.  On approaching a low, triangular island on the eastern shore, the depth diminished quick, and an anchor was let go; but in swinging to it, the ship caught upon a bank of sand and shells where there was no more than twelve feet water.  In half an hour the tide floated her off; and the whale boat having returned, but without any information of the cutter, it was kept ahead; and before dark we anchored in 5 fathoms, at the entrance of Shoalwater Bay.

The opening through which we had come was named Strong-tide Passage.  It is six miles long, and from one to two broad; but half the width is taken up by shoals and rocks, which extend out from each shore and sometimes lie near the mid-channel; and the rapid tides scarcely leave to a ship the choice of her course.  The bottom is rocky in the outer entrance, but in the upper part seems more generally to consist of sand and shells.  By the swinging of the ship, it was high water ten hours after the moon’s passage, and the rise was thirteen feet by the lead; but at the top of the springs it is probably two or three feet greater; and the rate at which the tides then run, will not be less than five miles an hour.  It will be perceived, that I do not recommend any ship to enter Shoal-water Bay by this passage.

SATURDAY 28 AUGUST 1802