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The Careful Cartographer: Matthew Flinders
by Margaret Etherton

Early maps of the world had a huge area at the bottom marked Terra Australis Incognito—Great Unknown Southern Land. "Here be dragons" was written on the edge. It wasn't until the sixteenth century that Dutch, French, and British explorers came with their navigators and "modern" navigating equipment to map bits and pieces of the continent now called Australia. A very young English mapmaker or cartographer, Matthew Flinders, made the most accurate charts.

Matthew was born in 1774 and decided to be a sailor after reading The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe at school. When he grew up, his ambition was to map the Great Unknown Southern Land. He did not plan to be shipwrecked on an island like Crusoe. But in one of his adventures as a navigator, he was shipwrecked and then kept captive on an island for six and a half years.

Matthew landed his first job as a mapmaker when he was only 17. With Captain Bligh in charge of the ship, the Providence, Matthew charted many of the southern seas and made his first trip to Tasmania. To make a map in those days, you had to take many readings with a sextant (an instrument to measure the angular distance of the stars and the sun from the horizon), a compass, and a chronometer (a ship's clock) and mark them in a journal called the ship's log. Matthew used these readings to draw up his maps, which took a great deal of hard work.

On his second trip, Matthew made friends with the ship's doctor, George Bass, who was not much older than he. Together they bought a boat that was so small they called it the Tom Thumb. Between 1798 and 1799 they mapped and explored the coastlines of Tasmania and New South Wales, located in south-east Australia. They circumnavigated the island of Tasmania for the first time by sailing through a strait. Before this, sailors thought that Tasmania was connected to Australia. By mapping the strait between Tasmania and Australia, they then created a quicker route. Other ships could sail through the strait (now named Bass Strait after the ship's doctor) on their way to New South Wales.

In his next journey on a ship called the Investigator, Matthew circumnavigated the Great Unknown Southern Land. It was the very first time this had been done. In a journey taking one whole year, he charted coasts, islands, bays, and headlands along the way.

By the time it limped into to the port in Sydney, the Investigator was falling to pieces. Matthew decided to return to England on board the Cumberland, in order to locate a new boat and recruit a new crew.

Matthew's journey home was a disaster. The boat was shipwrecked on a reef in the Indian Ocean. They made for Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar, to have repairs done. Matthew didn't know at the time that war had started between the French and the English. Since Mauritius was a French port he was arrested and charged with being a spy. He complained so rudely that the governor kept him under house arrest for over six years. If Matthew had been a bit more polite, he might have been released earlier.

Back in England, Matthew was too sick to sail again. He died soon after his maps were published in 1814. They were so detailed and reliable that they were used for 170 years after his death up until the 1970's—an amazing achievement for one man. Even when satellite imaging created precise maps by taking pictures from space, Matthew's maps proved to be very accurate.

Was Matthew Flinders a great explorer or just a foolish man to attempt such amazing expeditions to chart the Great Unknown Southern Land? His maps have stood the test of time because he was so careful. Inspired to become an adventurer by Robinson Crusoe, a fictional character, Matthew was ambitious and keen to be the first cartographer to map Australia. In fact, he was the first person to call the land "Australia". Sometimes he was foolish when he forgot his manners. But he must have been very brave to sail to parts of the world where the old maps said: "Here be dragons!"


Bibliography

Estensen, Miriam. The Life of Matthew Flinders. Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2004.
Golds, Cassandra and Stephen Axelson. The Mostly True Story of Matthew and Trim. Sydney: Penguin Books, 2005.

Internet Sources:

http://www.maritimeworld.net/sn.asp?PageNumber=32
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/f/flinders.shtml
http://www.abc.net.au/navigators/captains/flinders.htm
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010364b.htm

Margaret Etherton is a teacher, tutor, and writer. She has taught a range of subjects, such as reading, writing, mathematics, and computers to people of all ages—from small kids to seniors! Margaret lives close to the beach in Sydney with her husband, two of her four children, and her cat. Currently she is working on resources for teachers, teaching computers to adults, and writing syllabus documents for Australian colleges.

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