What Ship Did George Bass Sail On?

In 1795, Bass and his partner Charles Bishop sailed from Sydney in the Venus to Dusky Sound in New Zealand, where they spent 14 days stripping iron from the wreck of Captain Bramptons’ old ship, the Endeavour. This was used to trade for pork in Tahiti before returning with the latter. When the ship reached Port Jackson (now New South Wales), Bass, Flinders, and Bass’s personal servant William Martin explored the Georges River. Bass decided to sail with Bishop in May 1799 instead of waiting for the Reliance to return to England.

Between October 1798 and January 1799, Flinders and Bass sailed through Bass Strait, around Cape Grim, and down the west coast of Tasmania. In Deptford, England, Bass bought a small vessel, which he named The Tom Thumb, to be used for coastal exploration in the colony. The captain on the Reliance was Henry Bass, who set sail on his last voyage in the Venus on February 5, 1803, but he and his crew were never seen again. His plan was to go to Tahiti and possibly the Spanish colonies.

In 1799, Bass was elected to the Linnean Society of London for his field collections and writings. He then turned to commercial ventures, although he continued to chart. In 1960, Bass excavated a ship dating to 1200 B.C. off the southern coast of Turkey. The vessel was collected in Van Diemens Land in November-December 1798 during a voyage with Matthew Flinders in Norfolk. After returning to the south-east corner of the continent, Bass and Flinders left on their first exhibition in 1795.

In 1803, Bass started a voyage to Tahiti, intending to head on to South America, but the Venus was lost and Bass was never heard from again. They sailed around the island and made the first map of the island. Bass returned to England in 1800 but soon left for Sydney again.