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In 1800 the armed ship Xenophon was chosen by the Admiralty to be  Matthew Flinders'
ship on his voyage to chart the coast of Australia.
She had been built as a collier and was described as being in good  condition.
At 100 feet long, 28 feet wide and with a draught of 14 feet  she was slightly smaller than
Captain Cook's Endeavour. Before she  sailed, her name was changed to
Investigator as being more fitting  for a voyage of exploration and discovery.

Her crew of 78 was made up of 18 officers, 45 seamen and 15  marines. In addition there
was a scientific staff of six accompanied by their four servants.

After circumnavigating Australia from 1801 to 1803, the Investigator  was condemned as
rotten and unseaworthy and left at Sydney as a  hulk. She had been under Flinders'
command for just two and a half  years. However in 1804 Governor King decided that she
could be  repaired after all. Her upper works were cut down and she emerged  from a complete refit
as a brig. In 1805, under the command of  Captain William Kent, the Investigator sailed for
England where, in  in 1810 the Navy Board sold the Investigator into private service, where,
in her old age she wandered from Petersburg to the Mediterranean.  She was once
again the Xenophon, the wanderer.

On August 1st 1853, she arrived in Geelong, Victoria from Liverpool and  spent her final
years in the service of  a company which later became the  Melbourne Steamship Company.