"Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) is considered one of Australia's greatest maritime surveyors. King entered Portsmouth Naval Academy in 1802 and later the Royal Navy, rising to midshipman to master’s mate and lieutenant in 1814. By this time his skills as a surveyor had been noted by Cpt Thomas Hurd, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. After the Napoleonic Wars the British government proclaimed that 'consequent upon the restoration of peace...it (is) most important to explore, with as little delay as possible that part of the coast of New Holland not surveyed or examined by the late Capt Flinders'. Lieutenant King was ordered to return to the Australian colonies to complete this task. From 1817 to 1822 King undertook a series of remarkable voyages and charted vast areas of coast stretching from Arnhem Land to Cape Leeuwin, King George Sound to the Great Barrier Reef and Van Diemen's Land to Torres Strait.

To undertake these hydrographic surveys King had two vessels specifically modified -HMS Mermaid in 1817 and Bathurst in 1820. Mermaid was to prove the mainstay of these three expeditions. Built of Indian teak in Calcutta in 1816 and purchased by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1817, this single masted, copper sheathed, iron fastened cutter was a tiny craft for such an undertaking at just 1mtres long, beam 5.38 metre and 84 gross tonne.

When King returned from his third expedition in 1821 the Mermaid's strained and worm -riddled timbers were considered too weak to support another surveying voyage and he completed his fourth expedition in the larger Bathurst, of 170 tons. In 1822 Mermaid was taken over by the colonial government of New South Wales and after a refit was commanded by explorer John Oxley on surveys of Moreton Bay, Brisbane and Tweed Rivers. The cutter was used to supply penal colonies at Port Macquarie, Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay and made voyages to Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand and Tahiti. In March or April of 1829 Mermaid was refitted at the government dockyard in Sydney and converted into an armed, two masted schooner". Source. Hosty, K. (2009) Maritime archaeological investigation of Flora Reef, Mermaid Project 2009, Australian National Maritime Museum. pp15-17.