C1814

Cape Clinton, on the south side of Port Bowen, tak…

Rare c.19th coastal profile of Cape Clinton, Port Bowen, Queensland by William Westall, artist on board Matthew Flinders seminal survey of the Australia coast on the Investigator. [EAST COAST. PORT BOWEN.]  Instead of a bight in the coast, we found … Read Full Description

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S/N: FAVTTA-CP-1808-QC–228953
(C099)
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Details

Full Title:

Cape Clinton, on the south side of Port Bowen, tak…

Date:

C1814

Condition:

In good condition.

Technique:

Hand coloured copper engraving.

Image Size: 

413mm 
x 40mm

Paper Size: 

440mm 
x 70mm
AUTHENTICITY
Cape Clinton, on the south side of Port Bowen, taken from the [anchor], Aug. 23 1802 - Antique View from 1814

Genuine antique
dated:

1814

Description:

Rare c.19th coastal profile of Cape Clinton, Port Bowen, Queensland by William Westall, artist on board Matthew Flinders seminal survey of the Australia coast on the Investigator.

[EAST COAST. PORT BOWEN.]  Instead of a bight in the coast, we found this to be a port of some extent; which had not only escaped the observation of captain Cook, but from the shift of wind, was very near being missed by us also. I named it PORT BOWEN, in compliment to captain James Bowen of the navy; and to the hilly projection on the south side of the entrance (see the sketch), I gave the appellation of Cape Clinton, after colonel Clinton of the 85th, who commanded the land, as captain Bowen did the sea forces at Madeira, when we stopped at that island  A boat was despatched with the scientific gentlemen to the north side, where the hills rise abruptly and have a romantic appearance; another went to the same place to haul the seine at a small beach in front of a gully between the hills, where there was a prospect of obtaining fresh water; and a third boat was sent to Entrance Island with the carpenters to cut pine logs for various purposes, but principally to make a main sliding keel for the Lady Nelson. Our little consort sailed indifferently at the best; but since the main keel had been carried away at Facing Island, it was as unsafe to trust her on a lee shore, even in moderate weather. On landing at Entrance Island, to take angles and inspect the form of the port, I saw an arm extending behind Cape Clinton to the southward, which had the appearance of a river; a still broader arm ran westward, until it was lost behind the land; and between Entrance Island and Cape Clinton was a space three miles wide, where nothing appeared to obstruct the free passage of a ship into both arms. Finding the port to be worthy of examination, and learning that the seine had been successful and that good water was to be procured, I left orders with lieutenant Fowler to employ the people in getting off pine logs and watering the ship; and early next morning [SUNDAY 22 AUGUST 1802], set off in my whale boat upon an excursion round the port.  From the ship to the inner part of Cape Clinton the soundings were from 5 to 8 fathoms, on a sandy bottom; but close to the innermost point there was no ground at 10 fathoms. From thence I steered up the western arm, passing to the south of a central rock lying a mile out; and got with difficulty to the projection named West-water Head. The arm terminated a little further on; but to the northward, over the land, I saw a long shallow bay at the back of Island Head, and beyond it was the sea. This western arm being full of sandy shoals, and of no utility, if at all accessible to ships, I observed the latitude and took angles, and then returned to the inner part of Cape Clinton. In rowing to the southward, close along the inside of the cape, we had from 3 to 9 fathoms water; but it was too late in the evening to make an examination of the southern arm, and I therefore ascended a hill near the shore, to inspect it. This was called East-water Hill, and I saw from its top, that the southern arm extended S. 16° W. about seven miles, to the foot of the hills behind Cape Manifold, where it terminated in shallows and mangroves. Close under Eastwater Hill there was a small branch running eastward, nearly insulating Cape Clinton; but neither this branch nor the main arm seemed to be deep enough to admit a ship much higher than the cape; and in consequence, I gave up the further examination, and returned on board at seven o’clock.  Amongst the useful bearings for the survey, taken at Eastwater Hill, were the following:  Entrance Island, centre,                 N. 9° 45′ E. Peaked Islet in the offing,              S. 58 45  E. Cape Manifold, east end of the island,   S. 29 40  E. Cape Manifold, highest of the two peaks, S.  3 20  W. By means of this last bearing, the longitude of Port Bowen was connected with Keppel Bay and Port Curtis, independently of the time keepers.

From: Flinders, M. A Voyage to Terra Australis, undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship The Investigator and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner. 

References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 756.
Tooley, R.V. The Mapping of Australia. London 1979 : pp. 77-79.
Perry, T. & Prescott, D. A guide to maps of Australia in books published 1780-1830. Canberra 1996 : 1814..

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 589314
Royal Collection Trust UK: RCIN 1054637
Silent World Foundation, Sydney.: SKU SF000813
State Library Victoria: CCF 919.4 F64V

 

William Westall (1781 - 1850)

Westall was a landscape artist born at Hertford, England. He was taught to draw by his elder half-brother Richard (1765-1836), a water-colour painter, Royal Academician and painting teacher to Princess Victoria. In 1799 he was admitted to the Royal Academy School, where he was studying when at 19 he was appointed landscape artist with Matthew Flinders' Investigator expedition to Australia, at a salary of 300 guineas. During the voyage he made a large number of pencil-and-wash landscapes in places visited by the Investigator and a series of coast profiles in pencil. When the Porpoise ran aground on Wreck Reef his sketches were 'wetted and partly destroyed' and, while Westall travelled in China, the drawings, regarded as part of the official record of the voyage, were taken by Lieutenant Robert Fowler to England. There, at the suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, they were handed to Richard Westall to be 'restored to a proper state'. After spending some time in China and India Westall returned to London in February 1805 and sought access to the sketches to paint a picture for exhibition at the Royal Academy and showed a View of the Bay of Pines at the academy later in the year. In the summer of 1805 Westall went to Madeira and twelve months later to Jamaica. After returning to England he painted a series of water-colour views of the places he had visited and these were shown in a Brook Street gallery and at the Associated Artists' exhibition in 1808. Later he received commissions from the Admiralty to paint nine pictures to illustrate Flinders' A Voyage to Terra Australis … (1814), and was engaged by several London publishers to paint water-colours to be reproduced as aquatints.  

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