Background
Matthew Flinders was born on March 16, 1774, at Donnington, Lincolnshire, and educated in a local grammar school.
(This two-volume work provides the first edited publicatio...)
This two-volume work provides the first edited publication of Matthew Flinderss fair journals from the circumnavigation of Australia in 1801-1803 in HMS Investigator, and of the Memoir he wrote to accompany his journals and charts. These are among the most important primary texts in Australian maritime history and European voyaging in the Pacific. Flinders was the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia. He was also largely responsible for giving Australia its name. His voyage was supported by the Admiralty, the Navy Board, the East India Company and the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society. Banks ensured that the Investigator expedition included scientific gentlemen to document Australias flora, fauna, geology and landscape features. The botanist Robert Brown, botanical painter Ferdinand Bauer, landscape artist William Westall and the gardener Peter Good were all members of the voyage. After landfall at Cape Leeuwin, Flinders sailed anti-clockwise round the whole continent, returning to Port Jackson when the ship became unseaworthy. After a series of misfortunes, including a shipwreck and a long detention at the Ile de France (now Mauritius), Flinders returned to England in 1810. He devoted the last four years of his life to preparing A Voyage to Terra Australis, published in two volumes, and an atlas. Flinders died on 19 July 1814 at the age of forty. The fair journals edited here comprise a daily log with full nautical information and remarks on the coastal landscape, the achievements of previous navigators in Australian waters, encounters with Aborigines and Macassan trepangers, naval routines, scientific findings, and Flinderss surveying and charting. The journals also include instructions for the voyage and some additional correspondence. The Memoir explains Flinders methodology in compiling his journals and charts and the purpose and content of his surveys. This edition has a substantial introduction
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1908145110/?tag=2022091-20
( In this edited selection of his journals, Matthew Flind...)
In this edited selection of his journals, Matthew Flinders, Australia's greatest navigator and the man who named our island continent, describes in captivating detail his epic mission to map our shores between 1796 and 1803. Edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, Terra Australis is a vital step toward a new understanding of our own history. Flinders tells of meeting and communicating with Aborigines, of the scrub and wilderness. His descriptions of the difficulties that he and his sailors faced still bristle with energy and immediacy two hundred years later. This is Flinders' story in his own words, neglected until now, but destined to be eagerly read by all ages. First published in two-volumes in 1814, this is the enthralling account of the circumnavigation of Australia, by the man who gave our country its name. Matthew Flinders was born in England in 1774. In 1789, defying his father's wishes that he enter the field of medicine, Flinders volunteered his services to the British Navy. He became the greatest early navigator of Australia, and explored the Australian coastline with George Bass in his eight-foot long vessel Tom Thumb and later Tom Thumb II. His account of his journeys, A Voyage to Terra Australis, is one of the great achievements of our literature. Tim Flannery is a bestselling writer, scientist and explorer. He has published over a dozen books, most recently Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific. In 2011 he was appointed chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission. textclassics.com.au 'Engrossing.' Age 'These texts convey well the nature of inshore maritime exploration then, and to Flinders's important contributions to the delineation of Australia.' Weekend Australian 'With a series of finely edited versions of Australian historical classics, of which Terra Australis: Matthew Flinders' Great Adventures in the Circumnavigation of Australia is the latest instalment, Tim Flannery and Text Publishing have made Australian history interesting again.' Australian Review of Books 'A fascinating document.' Sun Herald 'Flinders' detailed stories remain vivid to this day...described with the backdrop of the unforgettable wilderness of Australia.' Lobbyist 'The writing is fresh, clear and entertaining.' Australian Review of Books
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007CAJYC6/?tag=2022091-20
Matthew Flinders was born on March 16, 1774, at Donnington, Lincolnshire, and educated in a local grammar school.
Instead of becoming a surgeon like his father, Matthew Flinders entered the Royal Navy at 15 and accompanied William Bligh on his second voyage to Tahiti in 1791.
Between October 1798 and January 1799 Flinders and Bass, who had recently discovered the Bass Strait separating Tasmania from the mainland, sailed around Tasmania in the sloop Norfolk.
In the summer of 1799 Flinders surveyed the coastline north of Sydney as far as Moreton Bay (Queensland).
After returning to England in 1800, Flinders published an account of his work, and the Admiralty decided that he should chart the whole Australian coastline.
The Investigator became unseaworthy and, unable to complete the survey, Flinders sailed down the west coast and rounded the continent before returning to Sydney in June 1803.
In order to enlist support for a further expedition, Flinders embarked for England late in 1803.
Flinders ranks second only to James Cook among the explorers of the period.
His life was dedicated to discovery, and his careful scientific observations have stood the test of time.
Flinders wanted to name the new continent Australia, but the Admiralty preferred New Holland.
(This two-volume work provides the first edited publicatio...)
( In this edited selection of his journals, Matthew Flind...)
On 17 April 1801, Matthew Flinders married to his longtime friend Ann Chappelle. He had a daughter: Anne.