Archaeologists in bright orange suits reach carefully into a grave. They pull out a treasure—a plaque made of lead. They recognize the name on the plaque: Matthew Flinders.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a famous British explorer. He was the first person ever to sail all the way around Australia. Take a quick look at a map. It’s easy to see that Australia is a huge mass of land surrounded by water. That land mass is obviously a continent. But Mr. Flinders didn’t know those things. No one did! Before Captain Flinders sailed, no complete map of Australia existed. And Australia also wasn’t called Australia yet. Captain Flinders named it himself.
As a boy growing up in the late 1700s, Matthew Flinders read the adventure book Robinson Crusoe. He wanted to have his own adventures. He joined the British Navy and became the first person to sail around Australia as a young man in 1803. Years later, he returned to England. His journeys had worn him out. Still, he managed to write a book about them. He died on July 19, 1814. That was the day after his book was published. He was buried at St. James’s burial ground in London.
And what happened to Captain Flinders then? People have wondered for more than 100 years! After the burial, people decided to turn the old graveyard into a park. Mr. Flinders’ gravestone was knocked down. His gravesite became a mystery . . . along with the gravesites of around 60,000 other people! Part of the old graveyard became a railway station. People made up a legend. They said, “Matthew Flinders is buried under Platform 15!”
But now people don’t have to guess about the burial spot. Englanders have decided to dig up and move all the graves from St. James’s burial ground so they can build another railway station—this one for trains that go around 250 miles per hour. Few of the graves have name plates. Some name plates are made of tin. The letters on those have worn away in the wet London ground. But Mr. Flinders’ lead name plate is still easy to read. Scientists will study Mr. Flinders’ skeleton to see how life at sea affected him.
The discovery is like “finding a needle in a haystack.” It sends a message: “Remember Captain Flinders?” In Australia, streets, towns, and even an island are named after the old explorer. But many people there have forgotten him.
