The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson / With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant

A compilation of naval logbooks and a commander's journal records the voyages of a small surveying brig in early 19th-century Australian waters, presenting day-to-day entries, charts and officer narratives. It follows successive commanders as they navigate Bass Strait, chart coasts, identify Port Phillip and King Island, survey Tasmania, parts of the Queensland coast and visit Norfolk Island, New Zealand and Melville Island, and record the founding of settlements. Transcriptions alternate verbatim log extracts, paraphrase for clarity, and reproduced charts and illustrations document discoveries, seamanship, routine shipboard life and the vessel's eventual loss.