Flinders

Flinders, Matthew, naval officer and navi' gator, was born in 1774 at Donington, Lincolnshire, entered the navy in 1790, and fought in they Bellerophon on the Glorious First of June, 1794. In 1795, with some of the ship's company of the Reliance, he left Port Jackson, and explored the whole coast to the southward, discovering Bass Strait. In 1797 he was made a lieutenant. In 1801 he obtained command of a larger expedition to explore the coasts of Australia in the Investigator. He executed the work most successfully, but on his return was captured by the French, and was for six years their prisoner. In 1810, upon regaining England, he was most deservedly made a post captain. Four years later he published A Voyage to Terra Australis, and in the same year he died.