That he was personally courageous, his subsequent naval services proved.

He seems to have handled his ship at all times with extraordinary care, and it may have been that he had studied marine surveying with less assiduity than seamanship, for the chart that he made must be admitted to be very imperfect.
Murray, his successor in the command of the brig, is best remembered as the discoverer of Victoria, and "yet," writes Rusden, "he (Murray) merely obeyed a distinct order in going thither to trace the coast between Point Schanck and Cape Albany Otway noticing the soundings and everything remarkable." Rusden might have added, that Murray probably received some benefit from Grant's experiences, for at that time he was equally incompetent as a marine surveyor.

It is Flinders who has credited Grant with the discovery of the coast of Victoria "as far as Cape Schanck," and Flinders was most competent to judge as to whom the honour should belong.
On the great seaman's chart published in 1814 (Terra Australis, by M.
Flinders, South Coast, Sheet 5) is inscribed, "Coast as far as Cape Schanck discovered by Captain James Grant, 1800," in which track, of course, is included the entrance to Port Phillip, although Flinders knew that Grant had not penetrated to the bay itself.
Grant sailed from Sydney in the Anna Josepha, Captain Maclean, an old Spanish brig, belonging to Mr.Simeon Lord.

She had been taken off the coast of Peru by the Betsy whaler, and on her arrival at Sydney was renamed Anna Josepha in honour of the Governor's wife.

Loaded with coals and spars, the ship left Port Jackson for the Cape of Good Hope on November 9th, 1801.