T Bewes Strangways and Young Bingham Hutchinson had originally set out to examine the navigability of the Murray Mouth which was greatly debated. In November 1837 they travelled overland from Adelaide to the whaling station at Encounter Bay where they borrowed a whaleboat and crew.  The mouth was negotiated safely and they continued upstream discovering Currency Creek, and named Hindmarsh Island, Point McLeay and Point Sturt. From here they returned to their depot as provisions were running low. Their expedition ended when Sir John Jeffcott and Captain Blenkinsop from the whaling station attempted to sail back out through the mouth: their boat was overwhelmed by the waves and they, along with two of the crew were drowned. There a possibility that repairs that had been made to the boat after it was snagged in Currency Creek may have been damaged and contributed to the boat being overturned.

Captain Blenkinsop took the whaleboat out through the mouth of the Murray, but when he had nearly passed the last line of breakers the surf overturned the boat and Blenkinsop, Sir John Jeffcott and two crew members were drowned. The surviving crew were assisted ashore by the Aboriginal people. Strangways and Hutchinson then discussed the river flows and currents at the Murray Mouth, comparing them with Captain Charles Sturt's findings in 1830 when he navigated the Murray and discovered the mouth. They considered the Mouth unusable except possibly by steam vessels. They considered Encounter Bay a superior anchorage for the colony.