Bass Boat

George Bass (1771-1803), surgeon and sailor, was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby in Lincolnshire, England, the only child of George Bass, a tenant farmer, and his wife Sarah, née Newman. When his father died in 1777 George moved with his mother to Boston. For five years he was apprenticed to the local surgeon-apothecary Patrick Francis, and at 18 he was accepted after examination in London as a member of the Company of Surgeons. Two months later he was again examined and certified as a surgeons mate any rate. Within a week he was in the navy, at sea in H.M.S. Flirt. Late in 1789 he was transferred to the Gorgon and, while it was fitting out at Portsmouth, went to London for another examination which won him promotion to surgeon second-rate. He had brief postings in several ships, became proficient in navigation and seamanship and fluent in Spanish. He possessed some ninety books on many subjects, and through print and spoken word he had learnt much of the Pacific explorers. When he heard that the Reliance was fitting out for New South Wales, he obtained a transfer to her in April 1794, taking with him as personal servant a boy named William Martin. Henry Waterhouse was in command and Matthew Flinders masters mate when the Reliance sailed with Governor John Hunter. They arrived at Port Jackson on 7 September 1795.