Hundreds to attend Donington service for Matthew Flinders, whose remains were found during digging for HS2

When the remains of the famous explorer Capt Matthew Flinders – credited with naming Australia – were discovered during the digging for HS2, Jane Pearson knew he had to be brought back home to Donington.

This little village in Lincolnshire, where Flinders was born in 1774, has been preparing for his arrival for months, and is gearing up to welcome a host of Australian dignitaries travelling over for his reburial in July.

Enlarge / A logo on equipment stored near the OceanGate Inc. offices in Everett, Washington, US, on Thursday, June 22, 2023. (credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Ocean Sciences Building at the University of Washington in Seattle is a brightly modern, four-story structure, with large glass windows reflecting the bay across the street.

On the afternoon of July 7, 2016, it was being slowly locked down.

Red lights began flashing at the entrances as students and faculty filed out under overcast skies. Eventually, just a handful of people remained inside, preparing to unleash one of the most destructive forces in the natural world: the crushing weight of about 2½ miles of ocean water.

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