INVESTIGATOR HMS (Flinders)

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
shipstamps
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:12 pm

INVESTIGATOR HMS (Flinders)

Post by shipstamps » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:59 pm



She was built as a collier by the builder and first owner Henry Rudd at Monkwearmouthshore, County Durham.
1795 Launched under the name XENOPHON (other source gives FRAM and later renamed XENOPHON.) She was named after the wandering Greek hero Xenophon, a student of Socrates, soldier and writer.
Single deck, three masts, ship rigged. Oak hull.
Tonnage 334 ton.
16 January 1796 registered at Sunderland.

05 July sold to James Dunning at Darlington, County Durham.
Later sold to George Wakefield of North Shields and registered at New Castle.
19 April 1798 sold to the Royal Navy for £2.900 by Mr. G. Brown.
27 April 1798 arrived by Pither’s Yard on the River Thames to be fitted out as a armed sloop, ship rigged.
Armament 18 – 32pdrs. and 2 – 18pdrs. carronades.
24 May 1798 delivered by the yard to the Royal Navy and rated as sloop of war, named HM XENOPHON.
Tonnage given as 334 ton, dim. 100.4ft., length of gun deck, keel length 97ft., beam 28.5ft, draught 14ft.

Capt G. Sayer was appointed in July 1798 to command her and she was based at the Nore.
19 January 1801 Matthew Flinders was appointed as her captain, she was renamed HM INVESTIGATOR, and she was fitted out as a survey vessel for a voyage to Australia, for survey work around the coast of Australia. Flinders took over command on 25 January at Sheerness, and he was promoted from Lieutenant to Commander on 16 Feb. 1801.

18 July 1801 she sailed out from Spithead under command of Flinders and a crew of 78 made up of 18 officers, 45 seamen and 15 mariners.
Sailed via the Cape of Good Hope, before heading across the Indian Ocean to Australia, she made her landfall off Cape Leeuwin on 06 December. She entered King George Sound, where he stayed a month before she began a running survey of the Great Australian Bight over a length of 3.200km.
21 February 1802 off an island named by Flinders, Thistle Island after his master John Thistle who with a party of 7 sailors went there ashore to look for fresh water, not did return in the evening. The next day the cutter was found but not any sign of the men. The islands discovered in the vicinity were named after the other 7 lost men by Flinders.
Port Lincoln was surveyed, then on 6 March they sailed in Spencer’s Gulf, which was named after the first lord of the Admiralty.
20 March they were again at sea, and named Althorp Island and Kangaroo Island before crossing the bay which he named Investigator Bay.
08 April at 4pm a sail was sighted which was the French LE GÈOGRAPHE under command of the Frenchman Baudin. Flinders named the place of meeting Encounter Bay.
After leaving this place they were surveying and charting the coast, but due to bad weather it took him eight days to chart the next 240km of coastline.
She dropped anchor in Port Jackson at 03.00pm on 9 May 1802. The crew was in good condition without scurvy. He reported to Governor King, and the INVESTIGATOR was fitted out and provisioned for an other discovery voyage. Some new crew members were signed on.
He had to survey the coast north of Port Jackson, the Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria, sail to Timor and then down the west coast of Australia, back to Port Jackson. She was the second leg of the voyage in company with the LADY NELSON and the two vessels sailed from Port Jackson on 22 July 1802.
The LADY NELSON was a slow sailer and always behind, and Flinders sent her back to Port Jackson.
03 November she had discovered a quick passage through Torres Strait and began on his survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
On the 17 November it was reported to Flinders that the ship took 25 – 35 cm of water every hour and that she needed repair. The INVESTIGATOR was beached and careened.
26 November Flinders got a report on the damage, and the report gives that during a strong gale most probably the ship would be foundering, but when she remained in fine weather she could be used for an other six months.
Repairs which were possibly, were made and some caulking. On 12 March 1803 he sailed out of the Gulf, sailing along the north coast in a westerly course.
In the vicinity of Wessel’s Island, due running out of fresh food, the survey was stopped, she sailed to Timor and on 16 April she set sail from this port for the last part of the voyage along the west coast to Port Jackson where she arrived on 9 June. She was the first ship that circumnavigated Australia.

14 June 1803 the INVESTIGATOR was condemned in Port Jackson and thereafter used as hulk and warehouse.
In 1804 she was again surveyed, and it was found that her hull planking were in a sound state. She was repaired and January 1805 she made a voyage to Norfolk Island.
23 May 1805 under command of Capt. William Kent she sailed for England where she arrived in October.
28 July 1810 condemned by the Royal Navy and in December 1810 for £1253 sold to G. Bailey, then she returned to merchant service.

1813 She was for the first time reported in Lloyds Register under her old name XENOPHON, owned by Richard Gardner at Althorn, County Essex, she was registered at Maldon on 02 April 1812.
Armed with 2 – 6pdrs, long guns and 6 – 12 pdrs carronades.
1816 She made a voyage to Archangel.
1824 Transferred to London register, till 1826 was Gardner the owner.
1826 The owner given as T.S. Dobinson of Newcastle or North Shields.
1842 She made a voyage to St Petersburg.
1851 The owner given as E. Young at Shields, at that time most of her voyages were given to Canada.
She underwent extensive repairs in 1821, 1830, 1839 and 1841.
In later life she was snow rigged.
1851 She was given for the last time in Lloyds Register, she made a voyage to the Mediterranean.
01 August 1853 she arrived at Geelong, Victoria, Australia from Liverpool under command of Capt. Thomas.
06 August 1860 her register was transferred from London to Melbourne, she was then given as a one-decked hulk.
10 June 1864 Sold by Robert Wright to John Courtis, then sold to H.R. Reid, J.C. Poole and C.M. Poole on 25 February 1867.
She spent her final day as a hulk at Port Philip.
1872 Broken up and register closed on 31 December 1872.

Australia 1983 10s sg358, scott 377. 1966 $1 sg401, 1999 45c sgMS1852
France 2002 0.46Euro sg?, scott ?

Source: Mariner’s Mirror Vol 56 No 3 August 1970, article written by Geeson and Serton. Matthew Flinders by Thea Stanley Hughes. http://www.abc.net.au/navigators/ships/ ... r_life.htm

Post Reply