Browse the documents Browse the documents Search
Advanced search
The Flinders papersletters and documents about the explorer Matthew Flinders (1774-1814)
 
You are here: Flinders > Browse the Documents > Documents > Documents
 
All pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | Back to Index

Papers relating to Flinders' Career: Memoir of official services (1 of 2) (FLI05) Page 1


[Author unknown]


      Memoir of the official services of
          Captain Matthew Flinders


      Mr. Flinders entered the navy at the age of sixteen, and, at
the instance of the late Sir Thomas Pasley, embarked on board the Providence in
1791, with Capt. Bligh, on the well-known miƒsion of transporting the Bread-
fruit
trees from the Pacific islands to the West Indies. On this voyage, young
Flinders proved eminently useful in rating & taking care of the chronometers; &
there took his early leƒsons in the construction of charts.
      On his return home, in the latter part of 1793, he joined the
Bellerophon, 74, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Thomas Pasley, – to
whom he acted as aid-de-camp in Lord Howe's glorious victory of the
1st June, 1794. Shortly after which, he joined the Reliance, then
commanded by one of the Bellerophon's, in order to convey Governor Hunter
to his New South Wales. Soon after their arrival in Port Jackson, Mr
Flinders & the surgeon of the Reliance, Mr George Baƒs, with no other
companion than a boy, embarked in a boat only 8-feet long, and
explored George's River 20 miles beyond the point where Governor Hunter's
survey had stopped; and they made several important discoveries. They
were then equipped with a larger boat, & ascertained the unexpected fact,
that Van Dieman's [sic] land was an island, by paƒsing through the grand straits
now bearing poor Baƒs's name.
      The complete examination of Australia, was now the
anxious desire of Flinders's mind, - & being well seconded by Sir Joseph
Banks when in England, he was regularly fitted for a voyage of discovery. In


All pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | Back to Index
View Print Friendly Version


Related people
Flinders, Matthew
Pasley, Thomas
Bligh, William
Howe, Richard (Lord Howe)
Flinders, Matthew
Bass, George
Banks, Sir Joseph
De Caen, Charles Mathieu Isadore
Baudin, Nicolas
Vancouver, George
Chappelle (Flinders), Ann
Petrie, Ann

Places
Port Jackson
Bass Strait
Wreck Reef
Sheerness
Ile de France (Mauritius)

Vessels
Providence
Bellerophon
Investigator
Cumberland
Reliance

Words and phrases
Breadfruit
Admiralty

Related Documents
None