At last, in May, three only of the seventeen who started on this heart-breaking struggle for life against distance, starvation and exhaustion, were rescued, "scarcely alive," by a fishing boat, and taken to Sydney.

The others perished by the way.
Captain Hamilton, who had stayed by his wrecked ship, was rescued in July, 1797; and, as already stated, in January of the following year, Governor Hunter fitted out the schooner Francis to bring away a few Lascar sailors and as much of the remaining cargo as could be saved.

"I sent in the schooner," wrote the Governor in a despatch, "Lieutenant Flinders of the Reliance, a young man well-qualified, in order to give him an opportunity of making what observations he could among those islands." The Francis sailed on February 1st.
The black shadow of the catastrophe that had overtaken the Sydney Cove crossed the path of the salvage party.

The Francis was accompanied by the ten-ton sloop Eliza, Captain Armstrong.

But shortly after reaching the Furneaux Islands the two vessels were separated in a storm, and the Eliza went down with all hands.