Under the command of Capt. John Moresby, H.M.S. Basilisk, visited a number of places in New Guinea in 1873 and 1874. During this time, Moresby charted much of the South-East and North-East coasts. On February 21, 1873, passing through what he named Basilisk Passage, he entered the finest harbour on the coast. He put on the map the names Port Moresby and Fairfax Harbour, in honour of his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby. In an account of his enterprise published in London in 1876, Moresby declared: "It is not on record that any ship before the Basilisk had ever passed from South to North New Guinea, without first going some 240 miles to the eastward, to avoid the great Louisiade Reefs, which stretch that distance East. "She has found a safe ship channel through these reefs and opened a highway for commerce. The Basilisk has placed on the chart more than 140 islands and islets, of which 25 are inhabited, and has added many excellent harbours and safe anchorages to our knowledge." H.M.S. Basilisk was a wooden paddle sloop, unarmed, of 1,031 tons (b.m.), 185 ft. long, beam 34 ft. She was built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1848; broken up at Chatham in 1882.
SG172, Tuvalu SG165. Sea Breezes 5/70