In 1810, the Royal Navy ship, the Olympia, reached the British Harbour of Portsmouth,

after an epic voyage from the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa.

Among the passengers on board was one of the most celebrated explorers of the age.

Nine years previously, Matthew Flinders had sailed from England for what was then the little-known continent of Australia.

After resupplying in Port Jackson, the tiny British enclave in Sydney Harbour,

Flinders then set out on his mission to circumnavigate

the continent of Australia and map its coastline as he went.

After 18 months of battling against hunger, disease, treacherous reefs and high seas, Flinders

and his crew finally returned to Port Jackson, having successfully completed their mission.

While the ship, the investigator, was destined for the breakers' yard.

Flinders set out for England where he could expect a hero's welcome.

However, his voyage home turned into a 19th century odyssey.

After crossing, the Indian Ocean, he put in at the French-controlled island of Mauritius for resupply.

However, unbeknownst to him, Britain had declared Warren Napoleon,

and Flinders would find himself a prisoner of the French for over six years.

When he finally reached London in 1810, Flinders did receive his

hero's welcome, having become the first person to circumnavigate Australia, and in so doing

paving the way for a British conquest of the entire Australian continent. While Flinders had cemented

his place in history, his story, however,

eclipsed another tale of exploration and colonization of a kind that mirrored his own. While he sailed

around the coasts of Australia, a team of British military engineers and soldiers were conquering

what some regarded as the last frontier in Western Europe.

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