James Cook held the rank of Post-captain, but was not attached to any ship. He had recently been appointed Fourth Captain of the Greenwich Hospital, though it is unlikely that Cook ever took up his appointment there, and he continued to live at Mile End. Here, he reviewed his journal of his Second Voyage in readiness for its publication.
On 2 October, 1775, Prince Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau and his wife Princess Louise, who had been in London since late July, visited Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George at their rooms in Percy Street, off Tottenham Court Road, London. She wrote in her diary, “He had not discovered any new land, but... had brought a great many things back from all of the places, items of clothing, instruments, and items worked by their people. He was such a polite man that he showed us everything, his route on the chart, the drawings of animals that his son had made when travelling with him... this ocean traveller had even seen the Prince before, as he had been intended to occupy the position and administer the office [of court tutor to the Prince’s son]... When we got up from the table, Forster gave the Prince a large part of the foreign rarities that were laid out on the table”. The artifacts from Tonga, Tahiti and New Zealand, are now on display in Wörlitz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Two days later, Richard Gough, director of the Society of Antiquaries of London, wrote to the antiquarian Rev. Michael Tyson, “Forster and Cook (as perhaps you know) have advertized that they Shall publish their Voyage within a year from date of the Advertisement. They have made great discoveries, been further towards the South Pole than any former Navigators, and are convinced of the impossibility of penetrating further for a barrier of ice”.
On 5 October, David Samwell appeared before the Court of the Examiners at the Surgeon’s Hall, and qualified with the rank of second mate third rate. It was in that role that he joined Resolution in 1776.
The next day, James Wallis (who had recently returned in Resolution as her carpenter) joined HMS Firm as her carpenter. Three days later, the Daily Advertiser reported, “Extract of a Letter from Chatham, Oct. 6... Yesterday sailed from hence the Syren Frigate, Capt. Furneaux, bound fer America; she has stopt at Blackstakes to take in her Powder and Guns, after which she is to proceed on her Voyage”. Tobias Furneaux had been promoted Post-captain of Syren in August. Black Stakes is a bay in the River Medway, Kent.
Sometime in October, Georg Lichtenberg, a professor from Göttingen who was visiting England, paid several visits to Forster. On 16 October, Lichtenberg wrote to Johann Andreas Schernhagen, Hanover, “he is a man in his prime, full of ardour and courage... his memory is prodigious and so, they say, is his knowledge of natural history. To his friends he is obliging and unassuming, but he is implacable when insulted, and treats his enemies with a style of witticism peculiar to himself which is highly successful, that is to say, he boxes their ears”.
Forster had begun a draft account of the voyage for submission to Lord Sandwich using his own and Cook’s journals. On 26 October, Sandwich wrote to Forster, “I think the Public, who have contributed largely to your expenses during your voyage, have a property in such observations as you have made during the time of your being in their service; & whether your narrative is written in French or in English, I think it does not make a minutest degree of difference”. Two days later, Sandwich wrote to the lawyer and naturalist Daines Barrington, “By the letter I have received from you, together with one from Mr Forster I begin to fear that there is no possibility of doing any thing with Mr Forster; and I am, almost convinced that he is, what he has been represented to me to be, an utterly impracticable man... I am willing that his share of the emolument of that publication shou’d be considerable, & unless his vanity leads him to think he is entitled to more than his proportion, he will have no reason to complain”. Sandwich wrote to Forster the same day, “You mention a satisfaction that you have in being eased from the trouble of methodizing & clearing Captain Cook’s journal from its inaccuracies & vulgar expressions. I do not pretend to be a Critic; but I must say that I have met with very few vulgarisms or inaccuracies in that journal; but I have seen his journal misquoted, & vulgarisms introduced that were not in the Original”.
On 28 October, 1775, at a meeting of the Board of Longitude, “A Letter of this date from Mr Wales was then read representing that he had delivered to the Secretary all the Instruments with, which, he was intrusted for making Observations in his late Voyage except some few of the Thermometers which have been broke by unavoidable accidents, and an Handley’s Sextant which he parted from to a Spanish Officer at his particular request on his return home, and which he was ready to replace when required, and inclosing an account of his expences for the Carriage &c of the Instruments at different Places amog to £25..s12..d5 [i.e., amounting to £25 12s 5d]; at the same time setting forth that on account of the many Lands they were amongst during all the latter part of the Voyage and the great time they took up to settle properly, it was not in his power to keep his accounts up with the Ship, and that consequently he has been Obliged to finish them since his return which he hopes the Board will please to consider”.
It was resolved “That a Letter be written to the Navy Board to desire that the said Mr Wales may be paid an allowance after the rate of £400 Pr Ann. from the 25th Jany 1772 when he received his Instructions to the 25 Augt last when he delivered up the Instruments, both days inclusive, after deducting thereout £250 already imprested, to him, and also such sums as have been advanced to his wife during his absence or since his return; And also that he may be paid a further sum of £50 for his extraordinary trouble which he has had since his arrival in compleating such of the Computations and drawings as his daily Business on board Ship during the Voyage did not allow him to Execute, and £25.s12.d5 the amount of his aforesaid expences. And That he be directed to replace the Sextant which he parted from to the Spanish Officer”.
On 30 October, Samuel Bodall (who had returned in Resolution as her quartermaster at the end of July) married Elizabeth Drew at St. Bartholomew the Less Church, London.
November
On 3 November, the Morning Chronicle carried an advert for the unofficial account of the Second Voyage written by John Marra, gunner’s mate in Resolution, though his name did not appear in the book.
Captains COOK and FURNEAUX’s last VOYAGES round the World... A JOURNAL of the RESOLUTION’s VOYAGE, in the Years 1772, 3, 4, and 5, on Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere, by which the non-existence of an undiscovered Continent, between the Equator and the Fiftieth Degree of Southern Latitude, is demonstratively proved. ALSO, A JOURNAL of the ADVENTURE's VOYAGE in the Years 1772, 3, and 4; with an account of the separation of the two ships; and the remarkable incidents thar befel each. Interspersed with historical and geographical descriptions of the islands and countries discovered in the course of their respective voyages. Printed for F. Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul's Church Yard.
On 7 November, the Sick and Hurt Board wrote to the Admiralty Secretary, “In return to your letter of the 3d Instant, enclosing two others from Mr James Patten, late Surgeon of His Majesty’s Ship Resolution with an Account of the Expenses he had been at for Medicines &ca during the last Voyage of the said Sloop to the South Seas... We beg leave to observe in favor of Mr Patten, that in such a Voyage as that in question, where during the Course of Three Years the Sick Men could not have the accustomed benefit of an Hospital on Sick Quarters, and a greater Consumption of the Surgeons Medicines must necessarily have happened than in the ordinary course of Service, We are humbly of the Opinion He may be deserving their Lordships favor, and We therefore beg leave to recommend his being reimbursed the sum of £5.10.0 the amount of Medicines purchased at the Cape of Good Hope, and to be repaid the Charge of £8.10.0, being five shillings a day for 34 days, the Expence he was at while attending the Sick at that place”.
On 13 November, at a meeting of the Admiralty, it was resolved that “James Cleverley be appointed Carpenter of the Resolution Sloop, former removed to the Firm”, a fourth rate ship. Two days later at another Admiralty meeting, it was minuted that “Capt Cook, late Commander of the Resolution, applying to be allowed Credit on his Accounts for 709 Gallons of Spirits, & a quantity of Wheat issued to his Ship’s Company while in the high Southern Latitudes, the better to enable them to undergo the Cold and hardships they were unavoidably subject to; Resolved that he be allowed credit for the same accordingly”.
During the second week of November Forster went to Oxford with his son George and Friedrich Adolf Vollpracht, a young theologian, who was temporarily residing with them in Percy Street. On 22 November, Johann Reinhold received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Laws (DCL) from Oxford University. He apparently misunderstood what he had received, for he invariably put LL.D. among his academic honours when listing them on his publications. Oxford at this time conferred no such degree. The DCL was conferred, according to Gilbert White the naturalist, “on account of his literary fame; and because he had hazarded his life in a circumnavigation in the pursuit of Natural knowledge”. Forster spent some days at the University enjoying the company of scholars and studying the progress of oriental scholarship. It is possible he discussed giving to Oxford University some of the ethnographic items he had collected during the Resolution voyage.
On 23 November, Cook was nominated to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, “Captain James Cook, of Mile-end a gentleman skilful in astronomy, & the successful conductor of two important voyages for the discovery of unknown countries, by which geography and natural history have been greatly advantaged & improved, being desirous of the honour of becoming a member of this Society, we whose names are underwritten, do, from our personal knowledge testify, that we believe him deserving of such honour, and that he will become a worthy & useful member.” It was signed by 25 people, more than the usual 3-6 for such nominations, beginning with Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave. Others included John Hunter the anatomist; Charles Morton, Secretary of the Royal Society; Philip Stephens, the Admiralty secretary; John Campbell, one of the captains who examined Cook for his lieutenant’s examination; Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal; and JR Forster.
On 25 November, Lichtenberg visited William Hodges (who had been the artist in Resolution) accompanied by Colonel George Morrison of the 75th Regiment of Foot.
Johann Reinhold Forster’s first full-length scientific work, Characteres generum plantarum..., was published in a folio first edition of six copies from 29 November to 2 December, 1775. The most widely known and used edition of the work, however, is the quarto one published on 1 March, 1776. Forster had written most of the manuscript for this work in Resolution, completing it soon after the Forsters arrived home in London in August.
A few weeks before publication, Cook had called on Forster wanting to know whether the book was at press. Forster said it was, and showed Cook some of the plates. According to Forster, Cook asked Forster to stop its publication”. Forster later wrote, “I remonstrated, that it could by no means prejudice the History of the Voyage, as it is a latin & merely scientific Book, with no other reference to the Voyage, than that the plants therein mentioned, were collected during the Voyage, & that as it had been quite ready for the press before I reached England, it did not engross my time or attention, especially as I had a Son, who had nothing better to do, than to superintend the Execution of the plates & the press”.
December
On 9 December, the Morning Chronicle reported, “Yesterday, the command of a-ship was given to Captain Cooke, in order to carry over Omiah, the native of Otaheite, to his own country, which will sail with all convenient speed”.
The next day, the publisher Johan Karl Philipp Spener wrote to Carl Linnaeus, saying that Forster had written to him in Berlin from London stating “that he has sent a parcel to my address containing a number of curiosities of natural history which he brought back from his voyage, together with some manuscripts, which he has the honour to present to you as a gift”.
On 13 December, the Admiralty wrote to the Navy Board, “We do hereby desire and direct you to purchase upon the best and cheapest terms you can for His Majesty a Vessel of about Two hundred and Fifty Tons burthen, to be employed on Service in remote parts, letting us know when you have so done, and proposing what number and nature of Guns and Complement of Men it may be proper to establish upon her”. The vessel became Discovery, the ship that accompanied Resolution on the next voyage.
The next day Fanny, sister of James Burney (lieutenant in Adventure), wrote in her diary, “To our great surprise, who should enter late in the evening, but Omiah... he now walks everywhere quite alone, and has lodgings in Warwick Street [near Regent Street, London], where he lives by himself. The King allows him a pension. He has learnt a great deal of English... and can with the assistance of signs and action, make himself tolerably well understood. He pronounces English quite different from other foreigners, and sometimes unintelligibly. However, he has really made a great proficiency, considering the disadvantages he labours under, which render his studying the language so much more difficult to him than to other strangers, for he knows nothing of letters, and there are so very few persons who are acquainted with his language that it must have been extremely difficult to have instructed him at all. He is lively and intelligent, and seems so open and frank-hearted, that he looks every one in the face as his friend and well-wisher”.
On 19 December, Captain George Collier, sent to Lord Sandwich, an “extract of a letter sent me from America [that] may be deserving of your Lordship's attention”. It said, in part, “the particular advantageous situation of the harbour in Rhode Island, the entrance into which lies N.E. and is so easy of access that ships may easily obtain passages to that place all the winter through; there is 20 fathom into it and sufficient room for all the Royal Navy. The town of Newport stands on an island nine miles long and navigable for ships all round it. A small number of men might always keep possession against all the force that could be brought against it, as the ships may guard every passage to it and the rebels will never venture upon an island where their retreat would be sure of being cut off”.
On 22 December, Royal assent was given to the “Discovery of Northern Passage Act”. It was an “Act for giving a publick Reward unto such Person or Persons, being His Majesty's Subject or Subjects, as shall discover a Northern Passage for Vessels by Sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and also unto such as shall first approach, by Sea, within One Degree of the Northern Pole”. This Act offered £20,000 for the discovery of a navigable route lying north of 52 °N latitude around North America.
Also that day, Forster wrote to Spener, “The Characteres Generum Novarum Plantarum is finished, and White, Cadell and Elmsley are the publishers, except that I have kept 200 copies for you... our booksellers will not publish the book before the middle of January”.
Sometime in December John Frazer, Corporal of marines in Resolution, petitioned Lord Sandwich, saying “Sheweth, That your Petition is the Person that was honored with your Lordships Commands, to go to the Voyage with Captain Cook on Board the Resolution, as the properest Person to dive; having acted in that Capacity, with good Success, in taking up His Majesty’s Naval Stores. That your Petitioner has been informed, by Dr Solander, That Captain Cook, upon his Arrival, recommended your Petitioner to the Board of Admiralty, as a Person that had been singularly useful in the Voyage. And that your Petitioner has, by a studious Application and long Experience, invented an Instrument for taking up Things out of the Sea, which he should think himself in submitting to your Lordship’s Inspection. Your Petitioner therefore begs leave, with great Deference and Submission, to solicit the Honor of a Boatswain’s warrant, or what Your Lordship, on Board one of His Majesty’s Ships in Ordinary, not being able to go again to Sea, on Account of the Pains in his Body, caused by frequent diving, from the Pressure and Coldness of the Water. And that your Petitioner would then be ready at Hand to seek after any Thing very particular of His Majesty’s that may be lost. And, as in Duty bound, your Petitioner shall ever pray”.
The petition was sent to Cook on 20 December.
On 26 December, Cook wrote to the Admiralty Secretary, “In Answer to your letter of the 20th Inst. respecting the Petition of Jno Frazer, I am to acquaint you, that I do not think him Qualified for the Preferment he prays for, or any other in which Seamanship is necessary. He has lately applyed to me to Solicit their Lordships to appoint him Master at Arms; as he is a Steady Sober Man and served several years as a Soldier in the East India Companies Service I believe he may be well enough qualified for that station”. Four days later, it was decided to appoint Frazer as Master of Arms of Brune, a fifth rate ship.
Sometime in late November or in December, William Wales (the astronomer in Resolution) was elected over two other applicants to the Royal Mathematical School, Christ’s Hospital, Newgate Street, London,. According to the Minutes, “This Court being summoned for the election by Ballot of a Master to the Royal Mathematical and Mr Stones Schools, in the room of Mr Daniel Harris deceased the Petitioners were, Reuben Burrow 20, Benjamin Donn 3, and Willm Wales 92. Whereupon the President declared William Wales duly elected, who being called in and acquainted therewith, he returned the Court his most humble thanks, and promised to discharge his Duty with the utmost Care and Fidelity: And the Court referred it to the Committee of Almoners to give him his Instructions and settle him in his Houses”.
Ian Boreham
Originally published in Cook's Log, page 36, volume 48, number 4 (2024).