The first engraved view of Memory Cove with Port Lincoln in the distance, South Australia made by William Westall (1781-1850), the artist on board Matthew Flinders important voyage of exploration on H.M.S. Investigator.
The view commemorates the loss of eight men including Thistle, ‘Investigator’s’ master, after the ship’s cutter was capsized south of Port Lincoln off what Flinders subsequently named Cape Catastrophe: their bodies were not found and he left an inscribed copper-plate memorial to them at Memory Cove, which he named for them. The view looks north towards the bay he later named Port Lincoln, from his native county: an Aboriginal shelter is included in the foreground.
The related text of 24 February reads: ‘The soil of the land round Memory Cove, and of Cape Catastrophe in general, is barren; though the vallies and eastern sides of the hills are covered with brushwood, and in the least barren parts there are small trees of the genus eucalyptus. The basis stone is granite, mostly covered with calcareous rock, sometimes lying in loose pieces; but the highest tops of the hills are huge blocks of granite. Four kangaroos, not larger than those of Thistle’s Island, were seen amongst the brushwood; and traces of natives were found so recent, that although none of the inhabitants were seen, they must have been there not longer than a day before. Water does consequently exist somewhere in the neighbourhood, but all our researches could not discover it.’
On 18th July 1801, the H.M.S Investigator with 88 men and two cats, including the famous Trim set sail. The Investigator sighted Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia on 6th December 1801 and in February 1802, they entered Spencer’ Gulf, which Flinders named for the second Earl Spencer. Flinders, and his hungry crew members, discovered Kangaroo Island on 21 March 1802 after landing near Kangaroo Head on the north coast of Dudley Peninsula. Flinders wrote in his journal that the whole ships company was employed in the skinning and cleaning of kangaroos. In gratitude for such a supply, he named it Kangaroo Island.
Flinders sailed from England on 18 July 1801, and during the next two years he surveyed the entire south coast of Australia from Cape Leeuwin to Bass Strait, the east coast, and the Gulf of Carpentaria. He returned to Port Jackson in 1803 having completed the first circumnavigation of Australia. On the return journey, Flinders was detained by the French in Mauritius for six and a half years and was not released until June 1810. He devoted the remainder of his life to the publication of this work, which was formally published one day before his death on 19 July 1814.
From, Flinders, M., 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”.
References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 576.
Wantrup, J. Australian Rare Books. Sydney, 1987 : 67a.
Hill, J. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages. San Diego 1974 : 614.
Howgego, J. Encyclopedia of Exploration 1800-1850. Sydney 2004 : II, F11.
Sabin, J. A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from its Discovery to the Present Time. New York. (1936) 1967 : 24758.
Ingleton, G. Charting a Continent. Sydney 1944 : 6487.
Collections:
National Gallery Australia: LEGACY ID 46394
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 750902
State Library South Australia: 919.4042 F622 d+++
State Library Victoria: RARELTEF 919.4 W 521
