The narrative of a voyage of discovery performed in His Majesty’s vessel the Lady Nelson, of sixty tons burthen, with sliding keels, in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802, to New South Wales.

Including Remarks on the Cape de Verd Islands, Cape of Good Hope, the hitherto Unknown Parts of New Holland, discovered by him in his Passage (the first ever attempted from Europe) through the Streight separating that Island from the Land discovered by Van Dieman: Together with Various Details of his Interviews with the Natives of New South Wales; Observations on the Soil, Natural Productions, &c. not known or very slightly treated of by former Navigators; with his Voyage home in the Brig Anna Josepha round Cape Horn; and an Account of the Present State of Falkland Islands… The whole illustrated with elegant engravings. London : Printed by C. Roworth, Bell Yard, Fleet Street, for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1803. Quarto (280 x 220 mm), contemporary speckled calf (boards a little scuffed), spine in compartments with gilt decoration and with a contrasting leather title label lettered in gilt (expertly rebacked); front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Vice-Admiral Lord Gardner (Alan Hyde Gardner, 2nd Baron Gardner, 1770-1815), and the title with his ownership inscription ‘Lord Gardner, Sept. 9th 1811’; pp. [4], [2 ‘List of the encouragers of this work’], [8], [v]-xxvi, [2 blank], [1]-195, [1 blank]; with the large folding frontispiece plate ‘A Sketch of Two Boats & a Cutter with Sliding Keels’ (some offsetting, short closed tear to verso at edge of one of the folds), folding chart coloured in outline ‘Chart of the N. & W. Parts of Bass’s Straits’, coloured plate of the Fringe Crested Cockatoo, and 5 other plates including ‘View of the Lady Nelson in the Thames’, ‘Benelong: a Native of New Holland’, and ‘Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that country’; occasional spotting, a couple of the uncoloured plates with light foxing, otherwise a crisp, wide-margined example which has a desirable naval association.

‘Grant’s Narrative … is of the highest significance to any collection of Australian books and no collection of books dealing with coastal discovery or with Victoria can be without it’ (Wantrup).

In Sydney in 1800, having sailed the Lady Nelson from England, Grant was appointed as her commander, and was shortly afterwards promoted to the rank of lieutenant. The Lady Nelson had a “sliding keel”, or centreboard, an innovative hull design which had been introduced by Captain John Schank in 1775. The movable sliding keel enabled the boat to skim across the surface of the water rather than cut through it, and to more easily navigate shallow waters, in which she was perfectly suited to carry out survey work. In the Lady Nelson, Grant made the first passage through the Bass Strait from west to east, charting the Victorian coastline to the west of Bass’s discoveries of 1797 and 1798. Grant’s narrative contains important descriptions of the flora, fauna, and newly discovered geographical features along the coast of Victoria. Although he was unable to enter it, he discovered Port Phillip Bay, which he named Governor King’s Bay. On a second mission Grant charted the coastline between Western Port and Wilson’s Promontory, and later in 1801, in company with Lieutenant-Governor William Paterson, he used the Lady Nelson to explore the Hunter River.

Wantrup, 75; Ferguson, 375