Manuscript log of HMS FLY by Lieutenant John Ince
Date1845 - 1846
Object number00006059
NameLogbook
MediumInk on paper, leather, boards
DimensionsOverall: 317 × 203 × 10 mm, 350 g
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis manuscript log written by Lieutenant John M R Ince records the bearings and activities of Her Majesty's Survey Ship FLY between 4 April 1845 and 7 April 1846 under the command of Captain Francis F Blackwood.
The log documents the surveys of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, including details of visits to a number of Australian harbours including Port Essington, Sydney, Port Phillip, Glenelg and Fremantle. This voyage was the first purely surveying mission to Australian waters. It represents an historical committment to Australia by the Royal Navy, and a major event in a continuing Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy activity.HistoryThe survey expedition of HMS FLY was intended to explore the Great Barrier Reef and to survey the gaps in order to establish and mark a safe passage through these openings. The FLY was commissioned under Captain Francis Price Blackwood with John M R Ince as Lieutenant, and sailed from Falmouth on 11 April 1842 with her tender, the cutter HMS BRAMBLE. The expedition was noteworthy for being the first to be despatched to Australia on a purely surveying mission.
The FLY arrived in Sydney in November 1842. Surveying north of Port Stephens began in December, and by September of the next year they had returned to Hobart via the Swan River in Western Australia. In January of 1844 the FLY returned to Sydney, not leaving until March. At the end of May they began the building of a large beacon on Raine's Island which was superintended by Ince and completed in September. During August and September Endeavour Strait was surveyed.
At the end of September the FLY sailed for Java, touching at Port Essington in the Northern Territory on the way. At the beginning of 1845 the FLY returned with the BRAMBLE to Torres Strait with the monsoons, and from February to mid-April they surveyed the area.
The log written by Lieutenant Ince begins on the 4 April, during the important survey of the central and north-eastern parts of the Torres Strait, in which they successfully established a safe passage for shipping around the northern outskirts of the Great Barrier Reef through the inner reefs and islands, to the entrance of Endeavour Strait.
The log describes their coastal surveying in New Guinea during late April and May 1845, including a group of Papuan natives visiting the ship on 13 April, and the discovery of the opening of Fly River on 1 May.
A number of small boats went out surveying on 2 May 1845, but had not returned after seven days, causing a panic among the expedition. Captain Blackwood set off for land in a cutter with provisions for 10 days, however returned the next day having lost it all in heavy seas. The expedition continue to search for the missing boats for almost a month, setting their sails loose during the day to attract their attention, firing their cannon, and setting blue lights at night. The survey work continued, but there was clearly increasing anxiety about the fate of the missing crew.
On 20 May Mr Pollard, the Master's Assistant, returned on board from a coastal visit and it is clear from the log that he disobeyed strict instructions from the Captain, and is informed he will be court-martialled. At the beginning of June they gave up the search and sailed back through Torres Strait, landing near Cape York on 5 June. On 12 June, they arrived at Port Essington - to be confronted by the missing boats, which had made their own way having found themselves separated from the ship.
On 18 June, while at Port Essington they received 55 passengers for the voyage to Singapore, including the passengers from the English merchant ship HYDERABAD and CORINGA PACKET, which became lost on their passage from Sydney to India. They sailed though Alass and Banca Straits, arriving in Singapore on 5 July, disembarking their passengers on 7 July.
At Malacca on 9 July, the Court Martial of Mr Pollard was held aboard HMS VERBAL, which resulted in an official reprimand. The log also records that on 15 July a sentence of 18 lashes for Jno. Toomey for mutinous language to the second master. Several other punishments are recorded at various points in the log.
On 18 July, the FLY set sail again stopping at Singapore for 12 days, and then sailing for the Western Australian coast. They anchored at a few island stops on the way, going aground once on 11 August, but managing to float off. Late August was spent sailing down the west coast, and during September strong south-westerlies carried them quickly along the south coast, through Bass Strait and up to Sydney, mooring off Garden Island on 25 September.
The Sydney visit lasted almost three months, during which "13 Crown prisoners lent for service and 8 Crown prisoners for passage to the hands of the Authorities" were disembarked, the Observatory and spare stores were landed on Garden Island, the crew and supplies were put on shore and finally the ship was towed to Mossman's Bay and there hove down for repairs.
The log records the death of two crewmen during the Sydney stay. On 18 December the FLY was reloaded and left Port Jackson, heading south. On the 20th, Lieutenant Ince records, they "sold the effects of Henry Hardy and Wm. Boon deceased and also Richd. Johns and Wm. Mallet deserters".
Christmas Day saw the FLY in Bass Strait and four days later they arrived in Port Phillip (Victoria) and anchored in Hobsons Bay, staying there for two weeks. On 12 January 1846 they sailed for Glenelg, anchoring on 16 January in Holdfast Bay, Gulf of St Vincent. A week was spent in South Australia and they sailed again, anchoring in the Swan River on 10 February. A cutter was sent out to survey Peel Harbour, returning on 17 February; two days later they set sail for the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in England later that month.
SignificanceThis log is a valuable unpublished account of the survey of the Australian coast by HMS FLY between 1845 - 46. This first hand account is a significant record of a notable surveying voyage to Australia by the Royal Navy. Lieutenant Ince went on to superintend the building of the Raine Islands beacon in the 1840s, which guided shipping into safe channels on the Great Barrier Reef.
