bays and
islands, upon the shores of the habitable globe, as Flinders did. The
extent of coastline freshly discovered by him was not so great as that
first explored by some of his predecessors. But no former navigator
pursued extensive new discoveries so minutely, and, consequently, found
so much to name; while the precision of Flinders' records left no doubt
about the places that he named, when in later years the settlement of
country and the navigation of seas necessitated the use of names.
Compare, for instance, in this one respect, the work of Cook and Dampier,
Vasco da Gama and Magellan, Tasman and Quiros, with that of Flinders.
Historically their voyages may have been in some respects more important;
but they certainly added fewer names to the map. There are 103 names on
Cook's charts of eastern Australia from Point Hicks to Cape York; but
there are about 240 new names on the charts of Flinders representing
southern Australia and Tasmania. He is the Great Denominator among
navigators. He named geographical features after his friends, after his
associates on the Investigator, after distinguished persons connected
with the Navy, after places in which he was interested. Fowler's Bay,
Point Brown, Cape Bauer, Franklin's Isles, Point Bell, Point Westall,
Taylor's Isle, and Thistle Island, commemorate his shipmates. Spencer's
Gulf was named "in honour of the respected nobleman who presided at the
Board of Admiralty when the voyage was planned and the ship was put in
commission," and Althorp Isles celebrated Lord Spencer's heir.* (*
Cockburn, Nomenclature of South Australia, (Adelaide 1909) page 9, is
mistaken in speculating that "there is a parish of Althorp in Flinders'
native country in Lincolnshire which probably accounts for the choice of
the name here." Althorp, which should be spelt without a final "e," is
not in Lincolnshire, but in Northamptonshire.) St. Vincent's Gulf was
named "in honour of the noble admiral" who was at the head of the
Admiralty when the Investigator sailed from England, and who had
"continued to the voyage that countenance and protection of which Earl
Spencer had set the example." To Yorke's Peninsula, between the two
gulfs, was affixed the name of the Right Hon. C.P. Yorke, afterwards Lord
Hardwicke, the First Lord who authorised the publication of Flinders'
Voyage. Thus, the ministerial heads of the Admiralty in three Governments
(Pitt's, Addington's and Spencer Perceval's) came to be commem