[1] She carried a selection of useful European plants, arranged by Sir Joseph Banks and provided by Brentford nurseryman Hugh Ronalds, to replace those lost in HMS Guardian.

Governor Philip Gidley King appointed himself captain of Porpoise on 6 November 1800, but left actual command in Scott's hands.

[5] In June 1803, Porpoise, with HMS Lady Nelson, under the command of Lieutenant George Courtoys, set out from Sydney for the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land in order to establish the first European occupation of what is now Tasmania.

[7] Matthew Flinders, who was returning to England as a passenger on Porpoise, together with his charts and logbooks, believed that Captain Palmer sailed on despite knowing that the other two ships had come to grief.

Three lives had been lost in the joint shipwreck but the ship Rolla and the schooners Cumberland and Francis were able to rescue all the remaining passengers.

Cumberland, with Flinders, went to the Torres Straits and on to Île de France, where the French governor imprisoned him for five years and seven months.