H.M.S. Investigator (1795 - c. 1872)

Summary

H.M.S. Investigator, originally a collier, was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1795 for service in the North Sea as H.M.S. Xenophon. In 1800 she was chosen by the Admiralty for an exploratory voyage in the seas of New Holland, continuing the work of previous navigators. The idea for such an expedition lay with Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society and himself a veteran of exploration in these waters. She was refitted, renamed Investigator, and sailed from Spithead in July 1801. Command was given to Matthew Flinders, a naval officer experienced in navigating Australian waters. Scientific personnel included botanist Robert Brown, artist Ferdinand Bauer, and collector Peter Good. Arriving off the southwest coast of New Holland in December, Flinders surveyed eastwards along the south coast and through Bass Strait, reaching Port Jackson in May 1802. In July Investigator departed for the intended circumnavigation of the continent, passing through the Great Barrier Reef and into the Torres Strait. Increasingly concerned at the parlous condition of the ship, Flinders decided to make for Port Jackson. Sailing via Timor and along the west and south coasts, the expedition arrived at Port Jackson in June. Investigator was decommissioned: Flinders decided to return to the United Kingdom for a replacement vessel. He did not reach home until 1810, having been a prisoner on the Ile de France for over six years. Brown and Bauer remained in Sydney. In the next two years they made extended visits to Tasmania (Brown) and Norfolk Island (Bauer) in pursuit of their scientific agendas. The Governor of New South Wales, Phillip King, instigated repairs of Investigator, such that in 1805 she was able to carry the scientists and their collections back to the United Kingdom. While the expedition yielded some of most significant natural history collections to reach Europe, the navigational and oceanographic results were disappointing. Investigator was declared unseaworthy and removed from active service. In 1810 she was sold and for the next 60 years was used as a commercial vessel under her former name Xenophon. She was broken up c.1872.

Details

Chronology

1795

Event - Launched in Sunderland as merchant ship Fram

1798

Event - Purchased by the Royal Navy and renamed Xenophon

1798 - 1800

Event - Service in the North Sea

18 July 1801

Event - Embarked at Spithead, United Kingdom

6 December 1801

Event - Sighted Cape Leeuwin, south western New Holland

8 April 1802

Event - Encountered French expedition in Géographe under command of Nicholas Baudin: named Encounter Bay

9 May 1802

Event - Arrived in Port Jackson

22 July 1802

Event - Departed Port Jackson for circumnavigation of the continent

9 June 1803

Event - Returned to Port Jackson

August 1803

Event - Flinders departed New South Wales for the United Kingdom

December 1803

Event - Flinders arrested on Ile de France

October 1805

Event - Brown and Bauer arrive at the Port of Liverpool, United Kingdom

1810

Event - Sold by the Royal Navy and returned to mercantile service

October 1810

Event - Flinders arrived back in United Kingdom

c. 1872

Event - Broken up

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Austin, K. A., The voyage of the Investigator 1801 - 1803, Commander Matthew Flinders, R.N. (Adelaide: Rigby Limited, 1964), 223 pp. Details
• Flinders, Matthew, A voyage to terra australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator [etc], 2 vols (London: G. and W. Nicol, 1814). Details
• Flinders, Matthew, A voyage to Terra Australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner : with an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island, 3 vols (Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966). Details
• Flinders, Matthew, The Investigator in Port Phillip, April-May 1802 (Malvern: Banks Society Publications, 2002), 36 pp. Details
• Flinders, Matthew: edited by Morgan, Kenneth, Australia circumnavigated: the voyage of Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator, 1801-1803, vol. 2 (London: Haklyut Society, 2015). Details

Book Sections

• Moore, David T., 'Robert Brown on HMS Investigator 1801 - 1805: an overview of the natural history collecting localities' in Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 49-65. Details

Edited Books

• Wege, Juliette ed., Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05 (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), 184 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Sir Joseph Banks as patron of the Investigator expedition: natural history, geographical knowledge and Australian exploration', International journal of maritime history, 26 (2014), 235-64. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Finding longitude: the Investigator expedition, 1801 - 1803', International Journal of Maritime History, 29 (4) (2017), 771-87. Details

See also

• Barker, Robyn M., 'The Botanical Legacy of 1802: South Australian Plants Collected by Robert Brown and Peter Good on Matthew Flinders' Investigator and by the French Scientists on Baudin's Géographe and Naturaliste', Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, 21 (2007), 4-55. Details
• Collins, S. J.; Mate, G.; and Ulm, S., 'Revisiting inscriptions on the Investigator Tree on Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 124 (2020), 137-64. Details
• Edwards, P. I., 'Robert Brown (1773-1858) and the natural history of Matthew Flinders' voyage in H.M.S. Investigator, 1801-1805', Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 7 (4) (1976), 385-407. Details
• Estensen, Miriam, 'Matthew Flinders: the man and his life' in Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen: the Expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 1-11. Details
• Kinnear, N. B., 'Robert Brown's zoological collections made during the voyage of "Investigator"', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 144 (1931), 33-8. Details
• Moore, D. T., 'A synopsis of dated entries in the biological collecting notes from eastern and northern Australia made by Robert Brown (1773-1858) on the Investigator voyage of 1801-1805', Archives of Natural History, 29 (3) (2002), 383-98. Details
• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 86, 87, 90, 96-98, 140 - transported human remains to England. Details
• Sexton, Robert T., 'Flinders' place in the coastal exploration of Australia' in Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 39-47. Details
• Vallance, T. G.; and Moore, D. T., 'Geological Aspects of the Voyage of H.M.S. Investigator in Australian Waters, 1801-5', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Historical Series, 10 (1) (1982), 1-43. Details
• Vallance, T. G.; Moore, D.T.; and Groves, E. W., Nature's Investigator: the Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801-1805 (Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Study, 2001), 666 pp. Details
• Webb, Mark, 'Peter Good: gardener on a voyage of discovery' in Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Werstern Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 97-103. Details