What is matthew flinders famous for
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Matthew Flinders
Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first man to circumnavigate Australia and popularised the name ‘Australia’ in his book, Voyage to Terra Australis.
Lincolnshire-born explorer Matthew Flinders is revered in Australia but almost unknown in his homeland. He was the first man to circumnavigate the continent and the first person to use the name ‘Australia’ in his book, Voyage to Terra Australis, published in 1814. He was also one of the best cartographers and navigators of his age.
Early career
Born in Lincolnshire in 1774, Flinders joined the British Royal Navy in 1789, aged 15. He sailed as midshipman on William Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage to Tahiti in 1792 and gained a passion for cartography.
In 1795 Flinders was posted to Port Jackson (now known as Sydney Harbour) on HM ship Reliance where he became a friend of George Bass, the ship's surgeon. The pair undertook a series of detailed surveys in Tom Thumb, an 8-foot dinghy. Their major coup was the discovery that Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) was an island and not part o
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Matthew Flinders
Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer (1774–1814)
For the British academic, see Matthew Flinders (academic).
For other uses, see Flinders.
Matthew Flinders | |
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Portrait by Antoine Toussaint de Chazal, painted in Mauritius in 1806–07 | |
| Born | (1774-03-16)16 March 1774 Donington, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | 19 July 1814(1814-07-19) (aged 40) London, England |
| Resting place | St James's burial ground, Camden, London (until 2019) Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood, Donington, Lincolnshire (from 2024) |
| Occupation | Royal Navy officer |
| Years active | 1791–1814 |
| Spouse | Ann Chappelle (m. 1801) |
| Children | 1 |
CaptainMatthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first inshorecircumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), a title he regarded as
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Matthew Flinders (1774-1814)
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Raised in Lincolnshire, where men usually turned to agriculture for a livelihood, Matthew Flinders showed originality by choosing the sea. Flinders was born on 16 March 1774 at Donington, Lincolnshire. From a family of doctors, Flinders was expected to take up the same profession, but inspired by reports of Cook's discoveries, and the reading of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, he decided to go to sea.
Flinders began his naval career at the age of fifteen, on the HMS Alert. The following year he sailed with Captain Bligh on the Providence to Tahiti and honed his navigation skills. In 1795 he sailed in the Reliance to the new convict settlement at Botany Bay. On board Flinders befriended George Bass, of similar intrepid nature. With Bass, Flinders made a number of small boat journeys and refined the charts of the New South Wales coast. In 1798 Flinders and Bass set out in the Norfolk to explore the extent of the strait between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania]. By circu
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