George Bass
| George Bass | |
|---|---|
| Born |
30 January 1771 Aswarby, Lincolnshire |
| Disappeared |
February 5, 1803 (aged 32) Last seen before leaving Port Jackson, New South Wales, Australia |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Boston Grammar School |
| Occupation | Surgeon |
| Years active | 1794-1803 |
| Home town | Boston |
Early life and family
George Bass (30 January 1771 - after 5 February 1803) was baptised in the church at Aswarby, five miles south of Sleaford, in February, 1771.
His mother was born at Frampton and when his father, a tenant farmer, died when George was six, they moved to Boston. His uncle, a warden at St Botolph's, knew Joseph Banks of Revesby, the naturalist who sailed with Captain Cook on the Endeavour.
Although his mother wanted him to become a doctor and he was apprenticed at the age of 16 to Dr Patrick Francis, surgeon and apothecary of Strait Bargate, George always longed to go to sea. While a pupil at Boston Grammar School he had read Captain Cook's Voyage Round The World and other seafaring books, and his uncle's connection with Joseph Banks influenced him.
Career
He left Dr Francis to go to a London hospital and qualified as a naval surgeon. In 1794 at the age of 23 he was made surgeon on board HMS Reliance, on which Matthew Flinders from Donington served as master's mate.
The ship sailed to Port Jackson, a colony at Sydney Cove, where 3,000 convicts lived in dreadful conditions. Bass had brought a tiny boat, Tom Thumb, from England and with Flinders he explored the uninvestigated area and made sketches of the coastline.
On 3rd December, 1797 he set sail in a 28 foot whaleboat and eventually proved by sailing round Wilson's Point, the southernmost extremity of Australia, that there was indeed a channel between Australia and Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania. This channel became known as the Bass Strait and his name is also commemorated by Mount Bass, the Bass River and Bass Town.
Bass was given sick leave and returned to his mother who was then living in Lincoln. Soon, however, he formed a trading company to export goods to New South Wales and registered the Venus with Lloyds of London in 1800.
On arrival in Port Jackson the market was glutted and there were no buyers for his goods. He agreed to sail to South America for salted beef and cattle and left Port Jackson in February 1803, but was never seen again. No trace of his ship was ever found.
Bibliography
- (1953) "George Bass, 1771-1803: His discoveries, romantic life and tragic disappearance" - Published by Oxford University Press - ASIN B0000CIHJ1