After he arrived there he made two hazardous trips with Bass in small open boats, exploring Botany Bay and George's River on the first, and then, after a brief visit to Norfolk Island, going farther south to Lake Illawarra. He rejoined the Reliance for a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope to bring back livestock. In Flinders, now lieutenant, joined the schooner Francis on a visit to the Furneaux Islands and carried out useful hydrographic work.
A second visit to Norfolk Island followed, after which, in company with George Bass, he circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land in the sloop Norfolk from 7 October to 12 January , and thus proved it to be an island.
He then examined parts of the Queensland coast, but although he entered Glass House Bay, he did not reach the Brisbane River. In March he sailed for England in the Reliance , where reports of his outstanding ability had preceded him.
While in England in he published his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait and its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales , but he was chiefly concerned with preparation for an expedition whose results were to place him among the foremost navigators of all time.
Promoted commander in February, he was selected to command H. Investigator , tons, with instructions from the Admiralty to explore in detail, among other places, that part of the south Australian coastline, then referred to as 'the Unknown Coast', which stretched eastwards from the head of the Great Australian Bight to the Victorian border.
In April he had married Ann Chappell of Lincolnshire. He had hoped to take her with him on his voyage, but the Admiralty refused to permit it and thus unknowingly condemned the newly-married pair to separation for nine years.
Flinders sailed on 18 July and sighted Cape Leeuwin on 6 December, after a passage which demonstrated his ability as a navigator and his attention to the welfare and health of his crew.
Sailing eastwards he reached the western extreme of the Unknown Coast on 28 January and made a landing in Fowler's Bay, which he named after the Investigator's first lieutenant. Flinders continued with his charting of the coast, effecting landings wherever desirable 'in order that the naturalists may have time to range about and collect the produce of the earth'.
In February the Investigator entered the mouth of a large inlet stretching northwards Spencer Gulf ; this raised great expectations that it might be the entrance to a strait then believed to stretch upwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria but these hopes soon faded.
On 22 March Kangaroo Island was observed, a landing made, and many kangaroos killed for food. Gulf St Vincent was next explored and charted and, after a second brief visit to Kangaroo Island, the Investigator sailed east. Flinders named the place of meeting Encounter Bay, which defines the eastern limit of his venture upon the Unknown Coast.
By circumnavigating Van Diemen's Land, Flinders proved that it was a separate island. It was on this trip that Flinders acquired his cat Trim. After further exploration in the new colony, he returned home to England to put his proposal to explore the entire coast of Terra Australis to Sir Joseph Banks, who had great influence with the British Admiralty.
By February the ambitious Flinders had been given command of the Investigator for this voyage of discovery, which was scheduled to take four years. During the weeks that the Investigator was fitted out for the voyage, Flinders married Ann Chappell on 17 April They had hoped to travel together, but this was not allowed, and so Flinders set sail without Ann, little knowing that they would not meet again for almost nine years. The Investigator reached Cape Leeuwin on 6 December Sailing eastwards, Flinders first charted the unknown southern coastline, unexpectedly encountering Baudin and the French expedition, and arriving in Port Jackson in May After refitting the ship, he continued his anticlockwise circumnavigation up the eastern coast and to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
In November, examination of the Investigator found that much of its timbers were rotting. Further repairs allowed the Investigator to keep sailing, but by March the ship was in such poor condition, and the crew in ill-health, the survey was halted.
The Investigator visited Timor for supplies, and then returned to Port Jackson down the west coast and across the Great Australian Bight. In reaching Port Jackson, he had completed the journey around the southern continent. Less than two years into the expedition, it was found that the vessel was rotten beyond repair. Flinders decided to return to England to obtain another ship in which he could continue the coastal survey. He sailed for home in the small sloop Porpoise , which ran aground on a reef off the coast of Queensland.
After recovering the crew - no small feat of sailing and rowing the ship's cutter back to Port Jackson to get help - Flinders again set sail for England, this time in the Cumberland. The Cumberland was too small for the voyage and leaked extensively, so Flinders was forced to put in at Ile de France [Mauritius], hoping to find a vessel to take him back home.
Flinders was anxious to return to England and left Port Jackson in August as a passenger aboard H. However, on 17th August the Porpoise struck a reef and was lost. Ninety-four survivors were cast on a small island while Flinders sailed back to Sydney aboard the ship's cutter and arranged their rescue. Flinders sailed to England in the schooner Cumberland but the little ship leaked so badly that Flinders decided to stop at Mauritius, then known as Ile de France.
He arrived there on 17th December , the day after Le Geographe had left for France. Flinders was arrested because of the war between Great Britain and France. His health suffered considerably despite being allowed some parole. The French governor continued to hold Flinders contrary to receiving orders from Paris in to release him.
On board Flinders befriended George Bass; with Bass, Flinders made a number of small boat journeys and refined the charts of the New South Wales coast. In Flinders and Bass set out in the Norfolk to explore the extent of the strait between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land Tasmania.
In he sailed to Australia, where he explored and charted its southeast coast and circumnavigated the island of Tasmania.
0コメント