Matthew Flinders was born in England in 1774. In 1789, defying his father’s wishes that he enter the field of medicine, Flinders volunteered his services to the British Navy. He became the greatest early navigator of Australia, and explored the Australian coastline with George Bass in his eight-foot long vessel Tom Thumb and later Tom Thumb II. His account of his journeys, A Voyage to Terra Australis, is one of the great achievements of our literature.