A veteran of HMS Investigator in later life: a power of attorney written and signed by Robert Purdie, who was appointed in 1801 as surgeon's mate with Flinders, and who remained on board for the entire expedition. The manuscript, written in 1814 and witnessed by the Sierra Leone governor Charles W. Maxwell, represents a rare opportunity to glimpse a few details of his controversial later life and career. Of course, any manuscript material relating to any of Flinders' crew is most uncommon. Purdie was the earliest writer to publish any detailed account by an Investigator officer in his early account of the wreck of the Porpoise and Cato, and of shipwrecked life on the reef.

A veteran of HMS Investigator in later life: a power of attorney written and signed by Robert Purdie, who was appointed in 1801 as surgeon's mate with Flinders, and who remained on board for the entire expedition. The manuscript, written in 1814 and witnessed by the Sierra Leone governor Charles W. Maxwell, represents a rare opportunity to glimpse a few details of his controversial later life and career. Of course, any manuscript material relating to any of Flinders' crew is most uncommon. Purdie was the earliest writer to publish any detailed account by an Investigator officer in his early account of the wreck of the Porpoise and Cato, and of shipwrecked life on the reef.

Purdie (1780-1815) was a native of Calder, Midlothian in Scotland. Although a relatively young medical officer for such an arduous voyage, he served with some distinction, and Flinders named Purdie Islands (off the South Australian coast near Ceduna) for him in 1802, not far from Point Bell (Flinders obviously had his crew very much in mind at the time, because the latter point was named for the senior surgeon, Hugh Bell). Purdie was one of those who wrecked on board the Porpoise in 1803, remained with the survivors until they were picked up by the Rolla, and returned to England. He must be the surgeon of that name who served on the Argo from July 1806 (at the latest), in which service he sailed to Africa and the West Indies, and next appears in Sierra Leone as secretary to the British colony under Governor Maxwell, a role which saw him caught up in criticism over the treatment of captured slaves. Purdie died in Sierra Leone in 1815.

Most significantly, Purdie has recently been proved to be the author of a long account of the wreck of the Porpoise and Cato and life in New South Wales (see previous item).