When we travel today, whether it is a long trip or short, of monumental importance to us or a casual jaunt, we frequently take photographs to remind us of where we went, who we met and travelled with and what we travelled in. Whether in a car or train or on a camel, we frequently take a picture of ourselves leaning on the jalopy bonnet or resting cautiously against the camel's back. When it's a very important or exotic trip, overseas or with a group of friends, we are more likely still, to record our means of transport as well as what we saw along the way. How sad it is then, that when Matthew Flinders and his crew set out for such an historically important voyage of discovery, that we have very little pictorial evidence from the time. What did those ships looked like and what it might have been like to travel in them.

We do have Flinders writings. His Ship's Log, his notes and diaries, his letters to his wife Ann. We have the official records, which recorded the owners and changes which were ordered, of ships of the time. Like cars and houses, ships underwent improvements, re-fittings and repairs as they changed owners and roles, as they got older. The Investigator, like wise went through many changes, some ordered by Flinders himself to improve and keep safe the ship which carried his men and his stores into totally unknown waters. In his work Robert Sexton has helped us to understand more about the life of the Investigator.

To read about the career of the Investigator by Robert Sexton click here.