Trim, the Cartographer's Cat

by Matthew Flinders

  Sailing away, Cook came to the gloomy conclusion that ‘the Country itself, so far as we know, doth not produce any one thing that can become an Article in Trade to invite Europeans to fix a settlement upon it’.18 Banks was more of an optimist. He had a keen interest in New Holland from this time until his death, and repeatedly promoted the benefits of Botany Bay as a penal colony after the loss of the American colonies.

  Incident 8

  ‘During our circumnavigation of Australia in the years 1801, 2, and 3, Trim had frequent opportunities of repeating his observations and experiments in his favourite science, natural history, and of exerting his undiminished activity and zeal for the public good.’

  In January 1801, Matt was appointed captain of the Investigator – ‘a north-country-built ship, of three-hundred and thirty-four tons; and, in form, nearly resembl[ing] the description of vessel recommended by Captain Cook as best calculated for voyages of discovery’, is how he described her. Six months later, the Admiralty gave us our sailing instructions to explore in detail, among other places, that part of the south Australian coastline then referred to as ‘the Unknown Coast’, and to document its flora and fauna. First stop Madeira, then Cape Town, and finally we dropped anchor in the sheltered waters of King George’s Sound on 8 December. It had been a long haul of some four and a half months, but on the last leg we averaged over six knots on some days (or around 160 nautical miles a day).

  During the circumnavigation, I generally stayed on board the Investigator, keeping an eye on things, when Matt and the botanical gentlemen led by Mr Brown went ashore to do their scientific work. Botanical work involves a lot of bodies, I discovered. Most of the quadrupeds and birds brought on board were dead on arrival because it’s not easy to draw animals that won’t sit still. A large speckled yellow snake was a rare living specimen. Matt and Mr Thistle captured it rather ingeniously: Matt pressed the butt end of his musket on the snake’s neck while Mr Thistle sewed up its mouth with needle and twine. Mr Bauer (who often stayed on board too) didn’t draw it, but Mr Westall did.

  Thistle Island, a snake, William Westall. National Library of Australia.

  As Matt remarks, I certainly had frequent opportunities to add to my observations and experiments in natural history, most of them watching Mr Bauer industriously draw his preserved specimens on little pieces of paper. I don’t think I was alone in finding the quadrupeds and birds more interesting than the plants, but Mr Brown was keen to have plants, so plants it mostly was. As for Mr Bauer’s industriousness, he had sketched over 1,000 plants and 200 animals by the time we tacked between the heads of Port Jackson and dropped anchor in Sydney Cove at the end of the circumnavigation on 9 June 1803. That’s a lot of sharp pencils. And many small sheets of paper that measured just 4½ inches by 6½ inches (11.5 cm x 16.5 cm) that he crowded with drawings because he didn’t want to run out of paper. The humid weather tended to ruin paper with nasty mouldy stains.

  Incident 9

  ‘Trim embarked on board His Majesty’s ship the Janty to return to England, and was shipwrecked with us upon a coral bank in the Great Equinoxial Ocean on the night of Aug. 17. 1803… He got to Wreck-Reef Bank with the crew, and passed there two long and dreary months; during which his zeal in the provision tent was not less than it had been in the bread room, and his manners preserved all their amiability.’

  When Matt sailed back to Port Jackson in the ship’s cutter to arrange for our rescue, I stayed behind on the sand bank with the 94 other survivors and the sheep, who had unhelpfully trampled over some of William Westall’s drawings when they were being driven ashore.

  Mindful of the old saying that rats abandon a sinking ship, I maintained a constant watch on the provisions tent, which was packed with supplies that had to last us on full allowance until we were rescued.

  There was more natural history to observe and examine on this sandy cay than in many parts of the continent we had just circumnavigated. Mr Brown and Mr Bauer would have enjoyed botanising here, but they had stayed behind in Sydney. Mr Bauer would have had to draw his pictures very quickly though, as the specimens went straight into the cooking pot. We enjoyed a remarkably varied diet for the six weeks we were stuck here, including birds, fish, shellfish, turtle and eggs (bird and turtle). Of course, there were some culinary disasters. No one asked for seconds the night cook served up sea cucumbers in his improvised version of trepang soup.

  Everyone was pleased to see Matt back with the rescue ships and welcomed him with three very hearty cheers and an eleven-gun salute. Within days we were packed up and ready to roll. Some of the men returned to Port Jackson in the Francis to sign off; most boarded the Rolla for China, and ten joined us on the Cumberland heading straight for England as time was of the essence.

  We left the reef with one mystery unsolved: who had been here before us? The Porpoise and the Cato weren’t the first ships to be wrecked on the reef, for on our first night, the men had built a roaring fire with a worm-eaten and almost rotten spar and a piece of timber which, reckoned the master of the Porpoise, was part of the stern-post of a ship of about 400 tons. Matt thought they might have been from La Perouse’s ships, which had set sail from Sydney in 1788 never to be seen again.

  View of Wreck Reef bank taken at low water, Terra Australis, William Westall. National Library of Australia.

  The tents you can see in the illustration were improvised from sails and spars recovered from the wreck. Young William Westall’s paintings of the shipwreck provide an important record of events. Two years before, in 1801, he’d been appointed landscape artist for the Investigator expedition at a salary of 300 guineas per year and made a large number of pencil-and-wash landscapes and a series of coast profiles in pencil to be included in the official record of the circumnavigation. While many were ‘wetted and partly destroyed’ when the Porpoise ran aground, a considerable number were restored when he finally reached Britain in the Rolla. One of the originals still bears the hoof marks sheep made when young John Franklin (yes, the same John Franklin who later became governor of Tasmania and who was lost seeking the Northwest Passage) was driving them on to the reef and they accidentally trampled over some of the drawings.

  BACKGROUND BRIEFING:

  Wreck to Rescue

  On 8 September 1803, sunburnt, salt-caked and unshaven, Flinders and his shipmates staggered ashore in Sydney Cove, much to the surprise of Governor King, who was at dinner with his family. The Sydney Gazette and the New South Wales Advertiser published the following accounts of the wreck, including Matthew Flinders’ letter to Governor King, on Sunday 11 September and Sunday 18 September:

  POSTSCRIPT

  CAPTAIN FLINDERS, late Commander of His Majesty’s Sloop Investigator, and Mr. PARK, Commander of the Ship Cato, arrived at Government House at half past 3 in the Afternoon of the 8th Instant, with the following disgreeable Intelligence, as communicated in the following LETTER to His EXCELLENCY.

  Sydney, New South Wales,

  Sept. 9, 1803.

  SIR,

  I have to inform you of my arrival here yesterday, in a Six-oar’d Cutter belonging to His Majesty’s Armed Vessel PORPOISE, commanded by Lieut. FOWLER; which Ship, I am sorry to state to Your Excellency, I left on shore upon a Coral Reef, without any prospect of her being saved, in Latitude 22° 11’ South, and Longitude 155° 13’ East, being 196 miles to the N. 38° E. from Sandy Cape, and 729 miles from this Port: The Ship CATO, which was in Company, is entirely lost upon the same Reef, and broken to pieces without any thing having been saved from her; but the crew, with the exception of Three, are with the Whole of the Officers, Crew, and Passengers of the Porpoise, upon a small Sand bank near the Wrecks, with sufficient Provisions and Water saved from the Porpoise to subsist the whole, amounting to 80 Men, for Three Months.

  Accompanied by the Commander of the Cato, Mr. JOHN PARK, and Twelve Men, I left Wreck Reef in the Cutter with Three Weeks’ Provisions, on Friday, August 26th, in the morning, and on the 28th in the evening made the Land nea
r Indian Head; from whence I kept the coast on board to this place.

  I cannot state the Extent of Wreck Reef to the Eastward, but a Bank is visible in that direction six or seven miles from the Wrecks. In a West direction we rowed along the Reef twelve miles, but saw no other dangers in the Passage towards Sandy Cape.--- There are several Passages through the Reef, and Anchorage in from 15 to 22 fathoms upon a sandy bottom, the Flag-staff upon Wreck-reef Bank bearing South-East to South-South-West, distant from three quarters to one-and-quarter mile.

  After the above Statement it is unnecessary for me to make Application to Your Excellency to furnish me with the means of Relieving the Crews of the two Ships from the precarious situation in which they are placed, since your Humanity and former unremitting Attention to the Investigator and Porpoise are Sureties that the earliest and most effectual means will be taken, either to bring them back to this Port, or to send them and myself onward towards England.

  I inclose to Your Excellency a Letter from Lieut. Fowler upon the occasion; and as he refers to me for the Particulars of the Wreck, an Account thereof is also inclosed. I think it proper to notice to Your Excellency, that the great exertions of Lieut. Fowler and his Officers and Company, as well the Passengers belonging to the Investigator in saving His Majesty’s Stores, have been very praiseworthy; and I judge that the precautions that were taken will exonerate the Commander of the Porpoise from the blame that might otherwise be attached to the Loss of His Majesty’s Armed Vessel.

  I have the honour to be

  Your Excellency’s

  Obedient humble Servant,

  MATTHEW FLINDERS.

  *** We hope to state the Particulars of this untoward Event in our next Week’s Paper.

  ACCOUNT OF THE LOSS OF HIS MAJESTY’S ARMED VESSEL PORPOISE AND THE CATO UPON WRECK REEF.

  [This edited extract from the page 2 account of the shipwreck lists the provisions in the store tent that Trim was responsible for protecting.]

  ‘By the evening of the 23d [August] the whole of the water, and almost the whole of the provisions were landed on the bank, and their stock was now found to consist of the following quantities and proportions for 94 men at full allowance:

  Biscuit - 920 | pounds

  Flour - 6944 ditto | 83 days

  Beef in 4 pounds 1776 pieces |

  Pork in 2 pounds 592 ditto | 94 days

  Pease - - 45 bushels - 107 days

  Oatmeal - 30 ditto - 48 days

  Rice - 1225 pounds - 114 days

  Sugar - 370 pounds |

  Molasses - 125 ditto | 84 days

  Spirits - 225 gallons |

  Wine - 113 ditto | 49 days

  Porter - 60 ditto |

  Water, 5650 gallons - 120 days at half-a-gallon per day

  With some sour krout, essence of malt, vinegar and salt.

  The other stores consisted of a new suit of sails, some whole and some broken spars, iron-work, the armourer’s forge, a kedge anchor and hawser, rope, junk, canvas, some twine and other small stores; and four half-barrels of powder, two swivels, and several musquets and pistols, with ball and flints.

  Until the 25th [August] they were employed in fitting up the cutter, which was now called the Hope, for her expedition, and in still adding to their stock upon the bank: for although the sea had much shaken the ship since the holds were emptied, yet she still stood, and they hoped would keep together at least until the next spring tides.

  At Lieutenant Fowler’s own request Captain Flinders ordered that he should remain with the stores until the last boat; and that Lieutenant Flinders [Matt’s brother Samuel], and Mr. John Aken the master of the Investigator should take charge of the two large boats, with a master’s mate in each capable of conducting them to Port Jackson, should illness or any accident happen to the two officers.

  On Friday the 26th of August in the morning, Captain Flinders and his companions embarked in the cutter, to the number of fourteen, with three weeks provisions. With minds full of hope mixed with anxiety, they returned the three cheers given by their ship-mates on the bank, who immediately hauled down the ensign which had been hitherto hoisted with the union downwards as a signal of distress, and now hoisted the union in the upper canton.’

  Incident 10

  ‘The Minikin being very leaky, was obliged to stop at the Isle of France; and there poor Trim, his master and few followers were all made prisoners; under the pretext that they had come to spy out the nakedness of the land; though it was clear as day, that they knew nothing of the war that had taken place a few months before.’

  The Cumberland was not only overrun with rodents (which I tried to deal with), it was also dangerously leaky, with pumps that were so defective that a large part of the day was spent at them to keep the water down. That’s why we dropped into Port Louis on 17 December for emergency repairs, a decision that changed our lives. Instead of a warm welcome and thanks for looking after Captain Baudin and the crew of Le Géographe in Port Jackson the year before, we were incarcerated for months in a stifling room in a filthy tavern (Café Marengo), where we were besieged by bugs. I did my bit to keep spirits up, but it was challenging.

  When Matt was transferred to Maison Despeaux with the other British POWs, I was despatched to the home of a French lady to be her daughter’s pet cat. Matt meant well and she was probably a very nice lady, but that’s not how I saw my destiny. I’m no ‘mincing in amongst cup and saucers’ house cat. I’m a ship’s cat. I’ve sailed the world. I’ve circumnavigated Australia. I’ve survived a shipwreck. I didn’t see myself ending my days on a lap waiting for a pat or the next meal.

  That’s when I decided that if I couldn’t continue exploring the world with Matt, I’d set off on my own and do it. I had no particular plans, but I knew I was perfectly capable of feeding myself and fending for myself, and I had a whole island with a wealth of natural history to observe and examine. So that’s what I’ve done. Who knows, I may even find where the dodos are hiding!

  Timeline

  The Voyages of Matthew Flinders and Trim

  •1795

  Flinders joins HMS Reliance as Master’s Mate under the command of Henry Waterhouse, taking Captain John Hunter out to his new job as second governor of the fledgling penal colony of New South Wales.

  •1796

  Reliance sails for Cape Town in September 1797 – Waterhouse had a commission to buy livestock for the colony. Flinders takes the opportunity to sit his lieutenant’s exams. Waterhouse stocks up on cattle and merino sheep.

  •1797

  Reliance leaves Cape Town in April bound for Botany Bay. Trim was born on board somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is why Flinders refers to him as ‘Indian by birth’ in his Biographical Tribute.

  •1798

  Flinders is promoted to the rank of lieutenant in January and takes command of His Majesty’s Sloop Norfolk in October to circumnavigate Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania] with George Bass. That’s a first. Trim remains on board Reliance carrying out pest control and other duties.

  •1799

  Flinders and Trim sail north to Glass-House Bay and Hervey’s Bay [Moreton Bay] in Norfolk. Flinders was on the lookout for a large river system to explore the interior. No luck. Trim’s job was defence of the bread bags.

  •1800

  Flinders and Trim sail to England in Reliance by way of Cape Horn and St Helena. Billeted around with friends, Trim discovers the restrictions of hearth and home. Flinders publishes Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Strait and Its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales: intended to accompany the charts of the late discoveries in those countries) and successfully pitches his plan to complete the investigation of the coasts of Terra Australis.

  •1801

  On 19 January 1801, the Admiralty signs a commission appointing Flinders lieutenant of His Majesty’s Sloop Investigator. His sailing instructions are to explore in detail, among other places, that part of the south Australian coastli
ne then referred to as ‘the Unknown Coast’, and to document its flora and fauna. Trim joins him for their second voyage to the South Seas. First stop Madeira, then Cape Town, and finally Investigator drops anchor in the sheltered waters of King George’s Sound on 8 December.

  King George’s Sound, view on the peninsula to the north of Peak Head. William Westall. National Library of Australia.

  •1802–3

  Flinders begins the survey of the southern coast, encounters Nicolas Baudin in the French exploration ship, Géographe, at Encounter Bay in April, and sails through the heads at Port Jackson in May. Two months later, he heads north to commence the survey of the east coast, arriving back in Port Jackson on 9 June 1803, having completed the first circumnavigation of Australia, but not the coastal survey – it was called off as Investigator was ‘found to be rotten’ as Flinders puts it.

  •1803

  Flinders and Trim board HMS Porpoise on 10 August – Flinders was keen to get to England to organise a replacement ship and complete the coastal survey. Seven days later, they are wrecked on a coral bank in the Great Barrier Reef. Flinders sails back to Port Jackson in the ship’s cutter, Hope, for help; Trim stays on Wreck Reef maintaining his usual zeal for protecting the provisions.