Samuel Smith - journal on board Investigator and Porpoise under Captain Matthew Flinders, 26 May 1801-7 October 1803, written after 1813 / Samuel Smith

SAFE/C 222 (Safe 1/254)

fonds

between 1813 and 1821

457376

Microfilm : CY 581 (C 222, filed at Safe 1/254)

0.02 metres of textual material (1 volume) - 20 x 24 cm - manuscript

Samuel Smith (1777-1821) served on Investigator as a volunteer under Captain Matthew Flinders in the survey of the Australian coast. Investigator was forced to return to Sydney where it was declared unseaworthy. Smith sailed with Flinders on the Porpoise when he set off to secure another survey vessel. After Porpoise was shipwrecked Smith sailed with the Rolla to Canton. On his return to England he was pressed into naval service. He left the navy in 1815 and died in 1821 at the age of fifty.

Journal written in notebook with pages watermarked 1813. The account was written up about ten years after the events it describes, probably from a diary kept at the time. It is not known whether it is in Smith's hand. Pasted into the volume is an obituary of Smith from the Manchester Gazette, 10 Feb. 1821.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Watermark throughout 'T. Stains 1813'.
A transcription of the journal has been published as 'Sailing with Flinders: the journal of Samuel Smith', edited by Peter Monteath, 2002.