He was promoted to the rank of commander on the 16th of the following month.
The renovated ship was good enough to look at, and she commended herself to Flinders' eye as being the sort of vessel best fitted for the work in contemplation.

In form she "nearly resembled the description of vessel recommended by Captain Cook as best calculated for voyages of discovery." But, though comfortable, she was old and unsound.

Patching and caulking merely plugged up defects which the buffetings of rough seas soon revealed.

But she was the best ship the Admiralty was able to spare at the time.

Long before she had completed her outward voyage, however, the senility of the Investigator had made itself uncomfortably evident.
Writing of the leaks experienced on the run down to the Cape, Flinders said:-- "The leakiness of the ship increased with the continuance of the southwest winds, and at the end of a week amounted to five inches of water an hour.