|
The following extract is taken from Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. III. - Hunter. 1786-1799., ed. F.M. Bladen, N.S.W. Government, 1895.
p. 332.
“A MEMORANDUM, intending to point out the errors Capt. Bowen seems to have fallen into respecting the positions of Cape George and Long Nose Point; and serving, likewise, to correct the mistakes I have unavoidably been led into by taking his latitudes of those places as their true latitude, not then knowing the latitude in which their discoverer, Capt. Cook, had laid them down.
“IN Capt. Cook’s voyage to this coast (vol. 2. page 48) we read : - ‘Tuesday, April 24th. - At this time our latitude by observation was 35 degrees 10 minutes S. A point of land which I had discovered on St. George’s Day, and which therefore I called Cape George, bore west 19 miles, and the Pidgeon House [Pigeon House] (the latitude and longitude of which I found to be 35 degrees 19 minutes S., and 209 degrees 42 minutes W.) S. 75 W.’
“ ‘Wdenesday, 25th. - About 2 leagues [six miles]to the northward of Cape George, the shore seemed to form a bay which promised shelter from N.E. winds, but as the wind was with us it was not in my pr to look into it without beating up, which would have cost me more time than I was willing to spare. The north point of this bay, on account of its figure, I named Long Nose. Its latitude is 35 degrees 6 minutes.’
“Now for Capt. Bowen. The sketch of what he has called Jervis Bay he has run on the coast-line for a few miles to the northward of that bay. In that coast-line he places Cape George in lat. 34 degrees 55 minutes, and Long Nose 34 degrees 50 minutes - the former 15 miles north of its true place, and the latter 16 miles; but he names a point Cuckold’s Point, and fixes it in the precise latitude of the true Long Nose. Now this Cuckold’s Point happens to be of a form answering the description of Long Nose, for it is long and low. It must be allowed, however, that it is not the extreme point of the bay, for Point Perpendicular is its extreme. But, on the other hand, it must readily granted by any one who has seen the place that when to the southward of the bay, which was Capt. Cook’s situation when he speaks of Long Nose as forming its northern extremity, then Point Perpendicular has no visible appearance of a projection or point, but seems to be in line with the rest of the cliffs; whereas Cuckold’s Point, as Capt. Bowen has called it, is so conspicuous as not to fail of being remarked as a point, notwithstanding its being at some distance within the entrance of the bay.
“It may therefore, I imagine, be fairly concluded that the Cuckold’s Point of Capt. Bowen is the Long Nose Point of Capt. Cook, * [Footnote - * The point Cook called Long Nose Point and Bowen Cuckold’s Point is now called Dart Point. - Admiralty Chart.] and that Jervis Bay, altho’ not named by him, was distinctly seen to be a bay, and was spoken of as such. As further proof, it might be observed that, at about the distance to the southward of Jervis Bay which Capt. Cook fixes his Cape George, there is a high mountainous point or cape that forms the northern extreme of the bight [Wreck Bay] at the back of which the Pidgeon House [Pigeon House] is situated.
“About 2 miles to the southward of this cape I had an observation which gave latitude 35 degrees 14 minutes, but then had no idea of its being Cape George, having always judged of the latitude of that place and of Long Nose from Capt. Bowen’s sketch, which I had with me in the boat. Being now convinced of the error of that sketch it will be necessary to correct the mistakes it has led me into.
“In my sketch * [Footnote - * This sketch cannot now be found.] of Shoals Haven [Crookhaven; Shoalhaven] I have struck off from the south point of that place the extremes of the bay in which it is situated - the one, Long Nose Point, N, 12 degrees E.; the other, Cape George, S.E. These must now be considered as the northern extreme, N. 12 degrees E.; another southern extreme, S.E.
GEORGE BASS.”
|
