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Portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN, 1774-1814 Antoine Toussaint de Chazal,

Top 10 Astonishing Facts Of Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders a navigator, hydrographer and scientist was born on the 16thof March at Donington, England. He was educated at Donington Grammer School and by Vicar of Horbling. He partly acquired the interest to go to the sea, partly by reading through Robinson Crusoe and was determined thereafter to embark on a long life exploration.

Following this interest he joined the navy in 1789. Two year later he served as diligence under William Bligh as midshipman on voyage. The next he sailed from England to port Jackson in H.M.S. 

He later on explored Botany Bay and George River using two small boats and later made a brief visit to Norfolk Island, going further to Lake Illawarra. Flinders later in 1798 raised the ranks to lieutenant in the navy. In that post he joined Schooner Francis on a visit to the Fureneaux and carried out useful hydrographic work.

1. Flinders enters royal Navy

Flinders entered the Royal Navy in 1789 and became a navigator. In 1795 he sailed to Australia, where he explored and charted its southeast coast and circumnavigated the island of Tasmania. As commander of the Investigator, he again sailed from England for Australia in 1801.

On this visit he surveyed the entire southern coast, from Cape Leeuwin, in the southwest, to the Bass Strait, which separates mainland Australia from Tasmania. On July 22, 1802, he sailed from Sydney (on Port Jackson) and charted the east coast of Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast.

2. Flinders raising the ranks to lieutenant

In less than 10 years Matthew Flinders had risen the ranks I the navy to the become the lieutenant. His interest which was evident since his young age drove him to join the Navy had finally paid off by hi raising the ranks to the lieutenant. In that post he joined Schooner Francis on a visit to the Fureneaux and carried out useful hydrographic work.

3. Matthew Flinders reburial

The construction of a high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham necessitated the excavation of that burial site, and in January 2019 archaeologists uncovered Flinders’s coffin. Flinders’s remains were among the tens of thousands of bodies interred at the St. James Gardens cemetery in London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Flinders’s skeletons were to be subjected to scientific analysis before being retired at a different location.

4. There is an Island named after him

An island was named after him; Flinders Island, northernmost and largest island of the Furneaux Group, northern Tasmania, southeastern Australia. It lies in eastern Bass Strait, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, and is named for Matthew Flinders, the English navigator who surveyed its coasts in 1798.

The island, with an area of about 800 square miles (2,080 square km), is hilly, rising to Strzelecki Peaks, 2,552 feet (778 meters), in the south. It is indented with numerous bays; those on the west coast are rimmed with Terra rossa (red earth) soils and support cattle and sheep.

5.Flinders was given command of HMS Investigator

In March 1800, Flinders rejoined Reliance and returned to Britain. During the voyage, the Antipodes Islands were discovered and charted. Flinders’ work had come to the attention of many of the scientists of the day, in particular the influential Sir Joseph Banks, to whom Flinders dedicated his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Strait, etc.

Banks used his influence with Earl Spencer to convince the Admiralty of the importance of an expedition to chart the coastline of New Holland. As a result, in January 1801, Flinders was given command of HMS Investigator, a 334-ton sloop, and promoted to commander the following month.

6.Flinders the writer

Flinders’ book was widely read and gave the term “Australia” general currency; A voyage to Terra Australia, Trim.  His books were seen to be outstanding on the coastal exploration of Australia. Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales, became aware of Flinders’ preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. On 12 December 1817, he recommended to the Colonial Office that it be officially adopted.  In 1824 the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia

7.Flinders’ arrest

While returning to Britain in 1803 Flinders was arrested by the France governor. Flinders reason for detention was however not clear because of the apparent loss of official papers and confusion of wartime administration. It had been said the De Caen considered him as a spy.

However in Â鶹APP, the council of states recommended the release for Flinders and his ship on the 11^th March 1806. This instruction was acknowledged by De Caen but on 30 August 1807 he reported to the Minister of Marine and Colonies that he did not intend to follow the instructions.

8. Matthew Flinders as a navigator

Sculpture of captain Matthew Flinders by Mark Richards . Photo by amandabhslater.

He was among the accomplished navigator and hydrographers, though his explorations were mostly made in unsuitable, leaky of rotten ships. His constant practice to ensure that no issue was overlooked; he stood his ship off shore at dusk and ran back every morning to where the previous day’s work had ended.

Flinders is recognized not only for his achievements but also for great improvements in the Science of Navigation, for his research on the action of the tides, and the affinity between the height of the barometer and the direction of the wind.

 9.Flinders name is associated with several geographical features and institutions

Statue of Matthew Flinders with his cat Triphoto by Richard Croft.

Although he never used his own name for any features in all his discoveries, Flinders name has been associated with several geographical features and institutions. For instance-  Flinders island, Flinders Ranger National Park, Flinders Chase National Park, Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre.

10. Statues erected in his name

Matthew Flinders statue, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia. Photo by mowling.

Australia holds a large collection of statues in Flinders name. The first was erected on 16^th March 2006, his birthday in his hometown. In 2014, on the 200 year anniversary, a large bronze statue was unveiled at Australia House, London.  The statue was later installed at Euston station near the presumed location of his grave.

Indeed, Matthew was a great English navigator with the accomplishment of being the first person to map out the coastal outline of Australia in 1801-1803, following his circumnavigation of the 7,692 million square kilometers (2.96 million square miles)