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🇦🇺 Australia /Culture & Society

What Matthew Flinders and George Bass can teach us about male friendship

From ABC Australia · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • A letter from 19th-century navigator Matthew Flinders to his friend George Bass reveals a deep, potentially romantic, attachment.
  • Flinders's effusive language and Bass's wife's suspicious reaction suggest a close bond that was unusual for the era.
  • Historians debate whether the intense friendship reflects the

In 1800, aboard the HMS Reliance, navigator Matthew Flinders penned a letter to his good friend, naval surgeon and explorer George Bass. It begins innocuously enough, with talk of charting, but soon delves into intensely affectionate language.

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 quarter deck over my head, took me from my book, and brought me upon deck to walk with you; often, I fear, to your great annoyance .

— Matthew FlindersIn a letter to his friend George Bass.

"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 quarter deck over my head, took me from my book, and brought me upon deck to walk with you; often, I fear, to your great annoyance ." Flinders wrote. Bass's wife, Elizabeth, clearly felt threatened by the depth of their connection, writing that Flinders "bears a bad character" and was "no friend of yours."

Flinders, who would later become the first European to circumnavigate Australia, met Bass when he was about 21 and Bass was 24. They met on the HMS Reliance while sailing for Port Jackson. The two men grew close, even undertaking a cartographical examination of the east coast of New South Wales together in a small boat named Tom Thumb.

is written by a man that bears a bad character, no one has seen this letter but I could tell you many things that make me dislike him, rest assured he is no friend of yours

— Elizabeth BassBass's wife, reacting to Flinders's letter to her husband.

Historians Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher, hosts of "The Dead Can't Sue" podcast, examine these events and the passionate letter. Simmonds notes that Flinders embodied the "age of sensibility," a period where deep emotional attachments between men were not uncommon. She argues that the intense bond between Flinders and Bass reflects the accepted expressions of masculinity during the 18th century, where tenderness and deep feeling were valued.

this was an age of sensibility, and Matthew Flinders is a man of exquisite sensibility. He embodies his age … he is tender and full of feeling and, in so many ways, that's actually what 18th century masculinity was all about

— Alecia SimmondsExplaining the historical context of male friendships.
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Originally published by ABC Australia. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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