On the 26th, I received orders to proceed round to Spithead; but the winds being generally from the westward, we did not arrive there before the 2nd of June.  A circumstance occurred during the passage, which, amongst many others, showed the necessity there was for a regulation since adopted, to furnish His Majesty’s ships with correct charts.  No master had been appointed to the Investigator; nor was any officer on board intimately acquainted with the navigation of the Channel; and having been most of my life engaged in foreign voyages, I was under the necessity, after leaving the pilot in the Downs, to trust almost wholly to my chart, which was that of Mr. J. H. Moore.  In working up under Dungeness, on the evening of May 28, we made a trip in shore, towards the town of Hythe, as I supposed from the chart.  A little after six, the officer of the watch had reported our distance from the land to be near two leagues; and there being from 10 to 14 fathoms marked within two or three miles of it, and no mention of any shoal lying in the way, I intended to stand on half an hour longer; but in ten minutes, felt the ship lifting upon a bank.  The sails were immediately thrown aback; and the weather being fine and water smooth, the ship was got off without having received any apparent injury.

This sand is laid down in the Admiralty charts, under the name of the Roar; and extends from Dungeness towards Folkstone, at the distance of from two and a half, to four miles from the land.  The leadsman, having found no bottom with 15 fathoms at ten minutes before six, had very culpably quitted the chains when his watch was out, without taking another cast of the lead; and the ship, in going at the rate of two knots and three-quarters, was upon the bank at twenty minutes after six; so that it appears to be steep on the east side.

The bearings given by the azimuth compass, whilst the ship was aground, were as under: 

Dungeness light house, S. W.
Lidd church W. by S. 1/2 S.
Town of Dim, but taken to be Hythe, N. W. by N.
Cheriton church, then supposed to be Folkstone, E. N. E.
Cliffy eastern extreme of the land, near Dover, E. 1/2 N.

The distance from the town of Hythe (Dim,) was guessed to be not less than two-and-half, nor more than four miles.

[IN ENGLAND.  PORTSMOUTH.]

JUNE.

In consequence of this accident, we went into Portsmouth Harbour and into dock on June 10; and it being ascertained that the ship had received no injury, we returned to Spithead next day, and moored as before, waiting for orders.  On the 18th, commissioner Sir Charles Saxton paid the ship’s company their wages up to the end of May, with an advance of two months; and the officers were permitted to draw bills for three months pay in advance.

JULY.

On July 17, I received the following instructions for the execution of the voyage.