7 September 1790. The bones of whales were also prized for certain purposes. The ear bones were retrieved to make drinking vessels and the ribs were sometimes used as the frames for gunyahs or huts. Europeans were aware that whales were to be found off the coast of Australia from at least 1699. That was when the British maritime explorer, naturalist and buccaneer William Dampier (1652-1715) sailed along the coast of Western Australia. There, he reported, "the sea is plentifully stocked with the largest whales that I ever saw." Bay whaling stations established on the coast by colonists in the nineteenth century attracted tribal Aboriginals who would camp nearby and feast on the discarded whale carcasses after the blubber had been removed. Some Aboriginal men served on boats at bay whaling stations as pulling hands or manned lookout posts where their keen eye-sight allowed them to see approaching whales without the aid of a spyglass. A few served on pelagic or deep-sea whaling ships operating out of Sydney and Hobart. Early visiting whalers British whalers and sealers began to call at Sydney soon after European settlement began in 1788. Some came under charter as convict transports or store ships and after landing their passengers and cargo began whaling or sealing voyages from Port Jackson. The first to return to Sydney after taking whales off the coast was Captain Thomas Melvill who commanded the Britannia owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons. To mark the occasion Governor Arthur Phillip in 1791 presented Captain Melvill with a Silver Cup which was later inscribed: Hunting the sperm whale could be a lucrative activity. Britannia returned to Britain in 1793 with 118 tuns of sperm whale oil and 1,900 sealskins. The other Third Fleet whalers which returned to Britain in 1793 were William and Ann (Captain Eber Bunker) with 68 tuns of sperm whale oil and 8,468 seal skins, Mary Ann (Mark Munro) with 25 tuns of oil and 1,900 seal skins and Scamander (John Nichol) with 117 tuns of oil and 6,100 seal skins. Britannia had been at Dusky Sound on the South Island of New Zealand where some or all of the seal skins may have taken. Another Third Fleet whaler, Matilda (Matthew Weatherhead), was lost at sea. One other British whaler was reported off New Holland (Australia) between 1791 and 1793. This was Canada (Captain Alexander Muirhead) which returned to Britain in