Discoveries

I have been reading an intriguing book called Ill-starred Captains: Flinders and Baudin by Anthony Brown. It tells the story of the two navigators and explorers as they charted the previously unknown southern coast of Australia between 1800 and 1803. It is an extremely detailed tale drawn from their daily journals, diaries of the sailors, and other contemporary accounts, linked together by the author's retelling of the voyages. What intrigued me was the similarity between the Englishman and the Frenchman: both were excellent navigators who put their scientific discoveries ahead of the current tensions between their countries; they died in their forties, forgotten men who were abandoned by their mentors and their governments as war between the nations became more important than discoveries on the other side of the world.

I loved following their routes, atlas close by, and identifying the landmarks the navigators named (many remain today the ones these men gave). Baudin's ships' names were assigned to Geographe Bay and Cape Naturaliste in Western Australia.  In territory close to our new home, I learned the origin of a number of names. The Fleurieu Peninsula was named by Baudin in honour of the man who gave him the instructions for his voyage: Charles-Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, who was at the time the Director-General of Ports and Arsenals. Kangaroo Island was named by Flinders  for the abundance of kangaroos found there (though the straightforward account in his journal  that the animals 'were tame and were shot in the head with small shot and in some cases knocked on the head with sticks') was particularly sad.

But the best part was finding out that Flinders actually sighted Baudin's ship on 9 April 1802 near the mouth of the Murray River at the end of a large bay, and after hauling up flags to signal who he was, went on board where they greeted each other,  talked about their discoveries and exchanged charts.  That evening, Flinders journal records that 'in consequence of our meeting here, I distinguish it by the name Encounter Bay'.