Coastline Surveyed by Capt. Matthew Flinders

The great task, among many, that Capt. Matthew Flinders set out to do was to ascertain in what direction the coast trended from the islands of St. Francois and St. Pieter, "Whether to the south-eastward to Bass Strait, or northward for the Gulf of Carpentaria" and "the form of the land from 133 deg. to 146 deg. east."

Capt. Flinders' instructions were signed by St. Vincent, T. Troubridge, J. Markham and Evan Nepean and were dated June 22, 1801. A portion of the instructions read: "Use your best endeavours to discover such harbours as may be in these parts, and in case you should discover any creek or opening likely to lead to an inland sea or strait, you are at liberty either to examine it or not, as you shall judge it most expedient" and "you are to be diligent in your examination of the said coast, and to take particular care to insert in your journal every circumstance that shall be useful to a full and complete knowledge thereof."

Minute instruments were given for making a botanical collection of all plants, a special plant cabin having been fitted in the ship for the purpose of keeping them. Last, but by no means least in view of subsequent happenings, he was provided with a passport from the French Government.

LEAKY OLD TUB

Flinders was given the Investigator, a collier-built ship, very slow and a leaky old tub, which could only be kept afloat by constant pumping. At Cape of Good Hope the ship was in such a state that the captain had to get permission of the admiral of the fleet there, to allow some of his officers to recaulk the vessel. Throughout the journal of his wanderings is a constant reference to the leaky condition of the ship. Capt. William Kent, who eventually took the Investigator back to England, informed the Admiralty that "a more deplorable, crazy vessel than the Investigator is perhaps not to be seen."

The Investigator's crew consisted of 88 souls, including John Franklin (midshipman), William Westall (landscape painter), Robert Brown (botanist), Crosley (astronomer, who resigned at the Cape). Flinders himself thereafter acted as astronomer, in conjunction with Lieut. S. W. Flinders. Some of the crew were exchanged for others at the Cape.

One of the problems Flinders had to solve was whether New Holland consisted of one or two islands. For nearly a century it had been conjected that there was a strait north and south.

THEORY OF TWO ISLANDS

William Dampier, when in North Australia in 1688 and 1699, had a suspicion, because of the action of the tides, that a passage existed to the south of New Holland. Through shortage of water he was unable to test his theory. The idea persisted until Eyre on his trip to Western Australia in 1841 disproved the idea of two islands, but it was many years before the inland sea theory was likewise disproved.

There are at least three records of Flinders's voyage. They are : —

1 — His original log in Mitchell Library, Sydney ;

2 — Log in the British Admiralty Office. This is a copy with addition and alteration made to the previously-mentioned log ;

3 — Flinders' account of his journey in his book ' Terra Australis.'

I am indebted to No. 3 for the greater part of the information that follows, but it has been compared with No. 2. It would almost appear that No. 1 was the original log containing all daily details of the journey, but, as with No. 2, it has an unsatisfactory feature, in that all islands, bays, capes and so on are referred to only by letters and/or numbers with few exceptions.

After leaving Nuyts Archipelago, the first reference by name was Cape Catastrophe. The South Australian Archives Department possesses only three pages of No. 1, namely, the record of the inscription on the tablet at Memory Cove, and the meeting with Baudin.

LOGS IMPOUNDED

Because the Governor at Mauritius impounded some of the logs of the Investigator, Flinders had to utilise a portion of the master's log. How many more, if any, logs and copies of logs there were, has not been ascertained. The following particulars regarding the life of Flinders are taken from Prof. E. Scott's "Life of Matthew Flinders," and will assist considerably in the study of the exploration of Eyre Peninsula and what it entailed.

Flinders was born on March 16, 1774, at Donington, Lincolnshire, and at Partney married Miss Ann Chappell on April 17, 1801. (This lady was born in 1770, and died in 1852). The Investigator sailed from Spithead on July 18, 1801; Flinders was not permitted to take his wife with him. After his explorations around Australia, on his homeward voyage he reached Mauritius on December 17, 1803, and was kept there, a prisoner, until June 13, 1810. He reached England on October 23, 1810.

The first copy of his printed book, "Terra Australis," reached him from the publishers on July 18, 1814, when he was unconscious, and he died the next day. We are indebted to Flinders for the name Australia. Although in his book he retained the old name Terra Australis, he said that had he been free and not bound by priority of naming to the old name he would have called the whole island "Australia."

START OF SURVEY

On December 6, 1801, Flinders sighted land near Cape Leeuwin and immediately started on his survey of the Australian coast, running easterly along Nuyts Land. On January 26, 1802, he was in longitude 128.41, just to the west of the present boundary of South Australia.

From that point to Port Augusta Flinders named the most prominent features, but a certain number missed his observation. These with the lesser points subsequently received names, so that looking at the present day map, it is impossible to pick out those named by Flinders.

There is a little difficulty in tracing the islands named after the seamen who were drowned at Memory Cove. The boat crew consisted of eight. Thistle and Taylor were the officers, therefore there must have been six seamen. Following the sequence of events and naming as indicated in Flinders's published work, Isle Williams and Thistle's Island were named before the accident and Taylor's Isles after it, but before Flinders's determination to commemorate the whole crew. On February 24, Flinders said, "I gave to each of the six islands nearest Cape Catastrophe, the name of one of the seamen: Thistle's and Taylor's Islands have been already mentioned." Five islands shown on the map bear names of possible seamen, but as to the sixth there is uncertainty — was Williams one of the lost crew?