He probably also practised map-making with assiduity, for his charts are not only excellent as charts, but also singularly beautiful examples of scientific drawing.
After a year of book-work Flinders felt capable of acquitting himself creditably at sea, if he could secure an opportunity.

In those days entrance to the Royal Navy was generally secured by the nomination of a senior officer.

There was no indispensable examination; no naval college course was necessary.

The captain of a ship could take a youth on board to oblige his relatives, "or in return for the cancelling of a tradesman's bill."* (* Masefield's Sea Life in Nelson's Time 1905 gives a good account of the practice.) It so happened that a cousin of Flinders occupied the position of governess in the family of Captain Pasley (afterwards Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley) who at that time commanded H.M.S.
Scipio.

One of her pupils, Maria Pasley, developed into a young lady of decidedly vigorous character, as the following incident sufficiently shows.