(formerly Xenophon) Ship-sloop (3m).
L/B:
100.5 × 28.5 (30.6m × 8.7m). Tons:
334 bm. Hull:
wood. Built:
Sunderland, Eng.; 1795.
In 1798, Matthew Flinders served as lieutenant of HMS Norfolk during George Bass's expedition along the southeast coast of Australia, during which the ship passed through Bass Strait to confirm that Tasmania was an island. Three years later, Flinders applied to Sir Joseph Banks for support in mounting a voyage around Australia. The Admiralty endorsed the plan and Flinders was supplied with Xenophon, a stout North Country ship that "in form resembled the description of vessels recommended by Captain Cook as best calculated for voyages of discovery." Departing Spithead on July 18, 1801, the renamed HMS Investigator called at the Cape of Good Hope before setting out across the Indian Ocean. Investigator arrived off Cape Leeuwin at the southwest corner of Australia on December 6. After putting into King George Sound, the expedition began a running survey of the Great Australian Bight, which stretched 3,200 kilometers to Spencer Gulf. Among the other objects of their search was a passage that led north to the Gulf of Carpentaria, for Australia was then believed to be divided by a strait. At the entrance to Spencer Gulf, seven of the ship's company were lost when a small boat capsized. Flinders surveyed Port Lincoln, which he named for his home county. Working their way east, Investigator's crew next charted Kangaroo Island, Yorke Peninsula, and St. Vincent Gulf. On April 8, at Encounter Bay, they were surprised to meet
La Géographe under Nicolas Baudin, with whom Flinders had several cordial meetings, despite the fact that their two countries were then at war. Sailing eastward through Bass Strait, Flinders visited King Island and Port Philip (Melbourne) before arriving at Port Jackson on May 9.
Investigator took aboard twelve new men, including an aborigine named Bongaree, with whom Flinders had sailed previously and who served as an intermediary with other aborigines encountered on the voyage. The expedition was also joined by Lady Nelson, a centerboard brig designed for surveying in shallow water; she proved a sluggish sailor and eventually returned to Port Jackson. Following in the wake of Cook's
Endeavour, Investigator hugged the east coast of Australia before passing through the Great Barrier Reef and then transiting Torres Strait, which Flinders had previously sailed through with Captain William Bligh in HMS Providence. While surveying the Gulf of Carpentaria, Investigator's timbers were found to be in a dismal state, and the ship's carpenter reported that the ship would not last much more than six months. Flinders sailed to the Dutch settlement on Timor, but as there was no prospect of obtaining another ship, he decided to sail westabout around Australia for Port Jackson, setting "all possible sail day and night" and reluctantly abandoning his survey of the north and west coasts.
Investigator reached Port Jackson in June 1803 and Flinders sailed for home in the storeship Porpoise, only to be shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef. Placed in command of Cumberland, he was forced to put into Ile de France, not knowing that England and France were again at war. Detained until 1810, he returned to England broken in health and lived barely long enough to see his memoirs in print. Meanwhile, Investigator had been repaired and returned to England; she was hulked in 1810.
Flinders, Voyage to Terra Australis. Ritchie, Admiralty Chart.
