Matthew Flinders: Erotic letter writer (part 1)
6/29/202632 min
Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) is best known as the first white guy to circumnavigate (and name!) Australia. But could he perhaps also have been circumnavigating the towering physique of ship surgeon George Bass?
Alecia and Leigh do a literal reading of a seemingly steamy letter, written by Flinders to Bass in 1800, and a (potentially) queer reading of the relationship between these chaps with maps.
By the end of this two-parter, you won't look at these men the same way.
Sources:
The Life of Matthew Flinders by Miriam Estensen (2002)
Matthew Flinders: The Man Behind the Map by Gillian Dooley (2022)
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders by Ernest Scott (2023)
My Own Destroyer: A Biography of Matthew Flinders, Explorer and Navigator by Sidney John Baker (1962)
Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia by Kenneth Morgan (2016)
Between Sentiment and Sea: The Meaning of Friendship in the Letters of Matthew Flinders by Alecia Simmonds in The Great Circle 38.2 (2016)
Friendship, Imperial Violence and the Law of Nations: The Case of Late-Eighteenth Century British Oceania by Alecia Simmonds in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 42.4 (2014)
- Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher
- Supervising Producer: Hannah Reich
- Development Producer: Beverley Wang
- Executive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric George
- Head of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica Radburn
- Theme: Martin Peralta
- Artwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAnnabel Crabb0:00
Why do humans hold on to stuff? Oddments we don't use and yet can't quite throw out.
Alecia Simmonds· Host0:06
It's not just you and me.
Annabel Crabb0:07
Australia's oldest library is crammed with stuff that isn't books. Terrible paintings, old menus, human hair. Is this history or hoarding? I'm Annabelle Crabb. Come and have a rummage through the story of us told by our stuff. Search for the History or Hoarding podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
Alecia Simmonds· Host0:34
There was a time when I was so completely wrapped up in you that no conversation but yours could give me any degree of pleasure. Your footsteps upon the quarterdeck over my head took me from my book and brought me upon deck to walk with you, often, I fear, to your great annoyance. Lee, I did not actually pen that torrid letter to you as much as I would obviously like to have. It's actually, weirdly, Matthew Flinders. Yep, the colonial explorer and the first white person to circumnavigate Australia, writing to his, what would we call him, his friend, George Bass, in 1800. OK, Alicia.
Leigh Boucher· Host1:23
Please tell me I can hear more from this letter. I love a good homos in history story.
Alecia Simmonds· Host1:29
Oh, Lee, I knew