English: Interior of the Church of St Nicholas, Partney The lectern. The plaque at the rear is to Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned as a spy. He identified and corrected the effects that iron components and equipment, on board wooden ships, had upon compass readings.