By way of ending to this story of the naval pioneers of Australia, it will
perhaps be not amiss to show what the navy was in Australia at the
beginning of the century and what it is now at its close. A return issued
by Governor King on the 4th of August, 1804, showed that the _Buffalo_,
ship of war, with a crew of 84 men, the _Lady Nelson_, a 60-ton brig, with
15 men, were the only men-of-war that could be so described on the
station. The _Investigator_, Flinders' ship, was then being patched up to
go home, and she is stated to have 26 men rated on her books. Belonging to
the Colonial Government were the _Francis_, a 40-ton schooner, the
_Cumberland_, 20-ton schooner, the _Integrity_, a cutter of 59 tons, the
_Resource_, a schooner of 26 tons, built from the wrecks of the _Porpoise_
and _Cato_, and some punts and open boats. The crews of all these vessels
amounted to 145 men.

A return dated six months later shows that there were 23 merchant vessels
owned, or constantly employed, in the colony, of a total tonnage of 660
tons, carrying crews numbering altogether 117. The vessels varied in size
from the _King George_, of 185 tons and 25 men, to the _Margaret_, of 7
tons and 2 men.

In the year 1898 the royal naval forces in Australian waters make a
squadron, under the command of a rear-admiral, consisting of 17 ships. Of
these 15 (including 3 surveying vessels at present attached to the
Australian station) are in commission, and 2 in reserve. The total tonnage
of the vessels in commission and in reserve amounts to 31,795 tons, armed
with the most modern weapons, and carrying crews numbering in the
aggregate about 3000, while the naval establishment at Garden Island (so
called because about a hundred and twenty years ago it was used as a
vegetable garden for the crew of the _Sirius_) is now one of the most
important British naval stations.