Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was one of the most accomplished navigators and chartmakers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated and named Australia, survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned as a spy, identified and corrected the effect of iron ships upon compass readings, and wrote the seminal work on Australian exploration A Voyage To Terra Australis.

Nicolas Baudin and the Meeting at Encounter Bay

On 8 April, Flinders, while sailing east, met up with the French explorer Nicolas Baudin, who was sailing west aboard Le Géographe. Both men had been sent by their respective governments on separate expeditions to map the unknown southern coastline of Australia. Both men of science, Flinders and Baudin met and exchanged details of their discoveries, and sailed together to Sydney to resupply. Flinders would later name the site of their meeting Encounter Bay.

Related Topics:
8 April - Nicolas Baudin - Science - Sydney - Encounter Bay

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The meeting at Encounter Bay by the two expeditions marked the point at which the entire coastline of continental Australia became mapped.

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By June 1803, the hull of Investigator had deteriorated to such a degree that Flinders was forced to abandon his survey of the northern coastline of Australia. He returned to Sydney by the west coast, thus completing his circumnavigation of Australia.

Related Topics:
June - 1803 - Circumnavigation

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Flinders set sail for England aboard The Porpoise to secure another vessel from the British Government with which to complete his survey, but was shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef. Remarkably, Flinders navigated the ship's cutter across open sea back to Sydney, a distance of some 700 miles, and arranged for the rescue of the marooned crew on Wreck Reef.

Related Topics:
Great Barrier Reef - Cutter

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Flinders next attempted to return to England aboard The Cumberland, but the poor condition of the schooner forced it to put in at Mauritius for repairs on 17 December. Unbeknownst to Flinders, England was now at war with France again, and the French governor, General De Caen, had Flinders detained as a prisoner of war. His imprisonment was, in reality, due to misunderstandings and indignancies by both parties and lasted for almost seven years.

Related Topics:
Schooner - Mauritius - 17 December

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Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810, where he immediately began work on preparing A Voyage to Terra Australis for publication. On 18 July 1814, the book was published. The next day, Matthew Flinders died, aged only 40.

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