In October 1820, Phillip Parker King suggested that the Tryal Rocks were the Montebello Islands: "May not the Tryal Rocks also be some of the low islands that skirt the coast? ...There remains no doubt in my mind but that Barrow's Island and Trimouille Island, and the numerous reefs around them, are the identical Tryal Rocks which have been the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands for the two last centuries... the only argument against the probability of this supposition is their longitude; but during the month of July the current sets with great strength to the westward and might occasion considerable errors in ships' reckoning, which, in former days, were so imperfectly kept that no dependence can be placed upon them." This error was repeated in 1846, when John Lort Stokes placed the Tryal Rocks between the Montebello Islands and Barrow Island. Admiralty Sailing Directions of 1917 further claimed that "Tryal Rocks awash at high water are near the outer edge of the S.W. part of Monte Bello Islands reef and five miles (8 km) off the North extreme of Barrow Island".