George Bass Australian Explorer
George Bass was born in Lincolnshire England on the 30th January 1771. George Bass seems to take a back seat to his famous mate Matthew Flinders but he does not need to stand in Flinder's shadow. George Bass became a doctor when he was eighteen and straight away became a surgeon with the British Royal Navy and went to sea. He was inspired by reading Cook's Voyage Round the World. While he was working at sea, he picked up the skills of seamanship and navigation. In Febrruary 1795 George Bass sailed for New South Wales on the Reliance. Also on the ship was Matthew Flinders. The Reliance arrived in Sydney Cove in September 1795.
Port Jackson to WesternPort Bay
After going with Matthew Flinders on the Tom Thumb on two voyages, George Bass went on his own in a whaleboat on a voyage of discovery along the east and south-east coasts of the colony of New South Wales. Bass took a whaleboat because the Reliance was being refitted. Bass left Port Jackson on 3 December 1797 with a crew of six. In twelve weeks Bass sailed as far as Westernport Bay. Bass's main objective was to discover if Tasmania was attached to the mainland or not.
Bass was using copies of Captain Cook's maps that he made in 1770. Bass sailed into Westernport on 5th January 1798. There was bad weather and Bass had to re-equip the boat and gear so he stayed there for twelve days. He explored the bay and the islands and found that there was a drought on. They were running out of food so Bass had to turn back and sail to Sydney.
George Bass Leaves Sydney
In 1803, after making many more explorations mainly with Matthew Flinders in the colony of New South Wales, Bass sailed to South America. It is supposed that he had a boat load of supplies to sell and wanted to smuggle them into Chile and make a big profit. Bass left Sydney on the fifth of January and he was never seen again. There is a lot of speculation about what happened to George Bass. There are many possibilities. He could have been wrecked at sea, or he was killed by Spanish authorities or pirates or smugglers. There were a few unconfirmed sightings but these have never held up to any scrutiny.
George Bass Resources
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