Folios 520-521: Matthew Flinders, London. Requests an order for his personal and...

Folios 520-521: Matthew Flinders, London. Requests an order for his personal and compensation pay be given, as commander of HMS Investigator to be continued up to 25 October 1810, the day of his arrival here and appearance at the Admiralty Board. In explanation, HMS Investigator was condemned by survey at Port Jackson 14 June 1803, and after various ineffectual efforts to procure another ship proper to continue the voyage, he was directed by Captain P G King, the Senior Officer, to discharge himself, officers and company from HMS Investigator, and to embark for a passage to England in HMS Porpoise. The order of Captain King was dated 19 July 1803 and complied with on 21 July 1803. After the shipwreck of HMS Porpoise and his return to Port Jackson in a six-oared cutter, he was directed to take a small colonial schooner Cumberland under his charge and to proceed in her to England with his charts and journals. This last order was also from Captain King and dated 17 September 1803. He proceeded as far as the Isle of France where the leakiness of the Cumberland, the badness of the pumps and other circumstances of distress, obliged him [to] put in there in passing. The seizure of all his books and papers at that island, with the circumstances of his extraordinary detention there of six and a half years, are known to you. He hopes an order for his personal pay and compensation to be continued to the 25 October 1810 may be issued, and from that date, to be placed on the half pay list.