by Rob Mundle
Soon after clearing the coast of New Zealand, the mechanically minded Wales devised and made an instrument to accurately measure the number of degrees the ship would roll in large seas, and the angle of heel when sailing ‘upon a wind’. This device intrigued Cook, who noted a few days later: ‘The greatest Angle he [Wales] observed her to Roll was 38 degrees … when the Sea was not unusually high so that it cannot be reckoned to be the greatest Roll she made.’
A little more than two weeks after setting sail, on 27 November 1774, when Resolution was at latitude 55 degrees south, the captain made a declaration that had an air of finality to it:
I now gave up all hopes of finding any more land in this Ocean and came to a Resolution to steer directly for the West entrance of the Straits of Magellan, with a view of coasting the … South side of Terra del Fuego round Cape Horn to Strait La Maire. As the world has but a very imperfect knowledge of this Coast, I thought the Coasting it would be of more advantage to both Navigation and Geography than anything I could expect to find in a higher latitude …
Over the following day, Resolution, as if given a free rein, recorded an impressive 184 nautical miles, an average of 7.6 knots. Second Lieutenant Clerke wrote of this achievement: ‘We have had a fine steady Gale and following Sea these 24 Hours, and run the greatest distance we have ever reached in this ship [over a single day].’
It was Saturday, 17 December, when Cook announced in his journal: ‘The land now before us can be no other than the west Coast of Terra del Fuego and near the West entrance of the Straits of Magellan.’ He noted with pride that, to the best of his knowledge, Resolution had just completed the first-ever run across the Southern Ocean from west to east in a ‘high Southern Latitude’. The comment that followed this reflected his typical restraint: ‘I have now done with the SOUTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN, and flatter myself that no one will think that I have left it unexplored, or that more could have been done in one voyage towards obtaining that end than has been done in this …’
After cruising along what her captain would describe as ‘the most desolate and barren country I ever saw’, Resolution sailed into a deep and sheltered sound, about 120 nautical miles west-northwest of Cape Horn, and anchored on 21 December. Here, for the first time, since leaving New Zealand, the crew were able to wood and water the ship.
Tragedy revisited the expedition the following evening, however, as noted by Lieutenant Robert Cooper: ‘Found William Wedgeborough Marine missing who we imagine fell overboard last night as he was seen very much in Liquor at 12 o’clock & was drowned.’ According to the captain, ‘It was supposed that he had fallen overboard out of the head [the toilet at the bow] where he was last seen …’ This was the second time that Wedgeborough, who was considered a troublemaker among the men, had fallen overboard.
On Christmas Eve, Cook and Pickersgill each led a shooting party to the shore, hoping to claim some fresh food for the celebratory lunch planned for the following day. It proved to be a highly successful exercise, with Cook’s party bagging sixty-two geese and Pickersgill’s another fourteen – thus allowing for one bird to be shared between three men – while the shags they shot were given as a bonus to the crew of the captain’s pinnace. ‘[We] had not experienced such fare for some time,’ Cook wrote of the ensuing feast. ‘Roast and boiled Geese, Goose pies etc was victuals little known to us, and we had yet some Madeira Wine left, which was the only Article of our provisions that was mended by keeping; so that our friends in England did not perhaps, celebrate Christmas more cheerfully than we did …’
Förster provided a more colourful report on proceedings:
All went on with a great deal of mirth & Glee & we went to bed at 3 o’Clock in the morning at broad daylight. We found that we could hardly shut our Eyes or have the least comfortable nap, for the noise of the drunken Ships-Crew who were continually fighting … the Captain sent all drunken noisy fellows ashore, to take there an airing & get sober again.
The following day, while Resolution remained at anchor, Cook put quill to paper to explain the obvious: ‘The Festival which we celebrated at this place occasioned my giving it the name of Christmas Sound.’
The captain’s journal recorded that 29 December was a significant day for the expedition: ‘at half past 7 we passed this famous Cape [Horn] and entered the Southern Atlantic Ocean. It is the very same point of land which I took for the cape when I passed it in 1769 which at that time I was doubtful of.’
The next stop for Resolution was Staten Island, where many sea lions and fur seals were killed ‘for the sake of their blubber or fat to make oil’. Their flesh was described as being ‘too rank’ to be eaten, but the following day Cooper wrote of ‘boiled Shags and Penguins in the Coppers for the Ships Company’s Dinner’.
As Resolution cruised along the south-west coast of Tierra del Fuego, a coast that Cook compared with that of Norway, all on deck kept their eyes peeled towards the shore, in the hope of seeing Adventure anchored somewhere there. Unfortunately, their alertness did not extend to anticipating the approach of a sudden and powerful squall. Before they could react, a topgallant mast, studding sail boom and studding sail had all surrendered to the force of nature. An extremely heavy burst of rain accompanied the squall, but the captain and his men were unable to benefit from the serendipity that such a development usually offered. Because of the mayhem on deck, there was no time to set the canvas canopies that were used to catch rainwater and so top up the ship’s water casks.
Once clear of land and into the South Atlantic, Cook committed to continuing on with the voyage of exploration rather than sail a direct course to Cape Town. He explained his decision with reference to the theories of Alexander Dalrymple, the Scottish geographer whose place Cook had taken on the Endeavour expedition: ‘… our Course was SE with a view to discovering that extensive coast which Mr Dalrymple lies down in his Chart in which is the Gulf of St Sebastian … I had some doubts about the existence of such a coast and this appeared to me to be the best route to clear it up and to explore the Southern part of this ocean.’
They again ventured beyond 58 degrees south, and for much of the time endured very strong gales that called for the majority of sails to be either furled or heavily reefed. The Southern Ocean remained as tempestuous as ever when it came to welcoming Resolution back into its domain. By now, the vast majority of the crew had had enough of this level of cruelty and were anxious for Cape Town. Not the captain, though, nor Förster, judging by his own account: ‘many dread to fall in with Land, for fear that this might retard our early arrival at the Cape [of Good Hope]: but as Land might have new plants, birds & fish, & the little store of brandy will of course necessitate the Captain to return in time to the Cape, I am quite impartial.’
By 14 January 1775, Resolution was heading towards the location ‘in which Mr Dalrymple places the NE point of the Gulph of St Sebastian’. Encouraging signs came during that day when Welshman Thomas Willis, acting as lookout, called to those on deck below that what they had believed to be an ice island was actually terra firma. As the ship approached Willis Island, which it was duly named, Cook and his officers realised there was a far greater landmass beyond, lying to the east-south-east. After they had sailed along its northern coast, in fact, the new island was found to measure some 100 nautical miles in length.
This was yet another impressive addition to the world map for Cook, but not one that excited him. He had allowed himself to think that the landmass might be the southern continent he had been seeking for more than two-and-a-half years. So desolate and uninviting was this find, he immediately dismissed any thoughts of venturing ashore ‘where it did not seem probable that any one would ever be benefitted by the discovery’. Elsewhere he wrote: ‘I must Confess the disappointment I now met with did not affect me much, for to judge of the bulk by the sample it would not be worth the discovery. This land I called the Isle of Georgia in honour of H. Majesty.’
Clerke held a similar hope to his captain: ‘I did flatter mysel
f … we had got hold of the Southern Continent, but alas these pleasing dreams are reduced to a small Isle.’ In laying claim to the island at a location Cook called Possession Bay, the Jack was hoisted on a staff and three volleys were fired from the cannons. The island would later become known as South Georgia.
The commander’s dismay was further evidenced in his admission: ‘I was now tired of these high Southern Latitudes, where nothing was to be found but ice and thick fogs …’ But still he would not surrender. Soon afterwards, Resolution was heading south-east in search of more land, possibly even Bouvet’s supposed cape, about which Cook held a new theory. Because of the recent mistake regarding the composition of Willis Island, he now thought it possible that Bouvet’s discovery might similarly be disguised by a mass of snow and ice.
This continuing quest saw Resolution back among icebergs and growlers on 27 January. Four days later, the course that Cook was holding again brought success. This time, he discovered eight of what would later prove to be a chain of eleven primarily volcanic islands – once more barren and uninviting – stretching in a north– south arc. Cook named them Sandwich Land (later, the South Sandwich Islands). They are located more than 1300 nautical miles east-south-east of Cape Horn. Clerke said of the group: ‘this Land is I believe as wretched a Country as Nature can possibly form …’
As Resolution sailed away, Cook penned a series of conclusions regarding this icy southern wilderness, observations that yet again reflected his remarkable instinct for maritime exploration:
We continued to steer to the South and SE till noon at which time we were in the Latitude of 58 degrees 15' South, Longitude 21 degrees 34' West and seeing neither land nor signs of any, I concluded that what we had seen, which I named Sandwich Land was either a group of Islands or else a point of the Continent, for I firmly believe that there is a tract of land near the Pole, which is the Source of most of the ice which is spread over this vast Southern Ocean: and I think it also probable that it extends farthest to the North opposite the Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans, because ice has always been found [by me] farther to the north in these Oceans than anywhere else which, I think, could not be if there was no land to the South … it is however true that the greatest part of this Southern Continent (supposing there is one) must lay within the Polar Circle where the Sea is so pestered with ice that the land is thereby inaccessible. The risk one runs of exploring a coast in these unknown and Icy Seas, is so very great, that I can be bold to say, that no man will ever venture farther than I have done and that the lands which may lie to the South will never be explored. Thick fogs, Snow storms, Intense Cold and every other thing that can render Navigation dangerous one has to encounter and these difficulties are greatly heightened by the inexpressible horrid aspect of the Country, a Country doomed by Nature never once to feel the warmth of the Sun’s rays, but to lie for ever buried under everlasting snow and ice … After such an explanation as this the reader must not expect to find me much farther to the South. It is however not for want of inclination but other reasons. It would have been rashness in me to have risked all which had been done in the Voyage, in finding out and exploring a Coast which when done would have answered no end whatever, or been of the least use either to Navigation or Geography or indeed any other Science …
With this in mind, the captain continued sailing east for another fourteen days in the hope that his new theories might lead him to Jean-Baptiste Bouvet’s find. But it was a mission without success.
I had now made the circuit of the Southern Ocean in a high Latitude and traversed it in such a manner as to leave not the least room for the possibility of there being a continent, unless near the Pole and out of the reach of navigation … Thus I flatter myself that the intention of the Voyage has in every respect been fully Answered, the Southern Hemisphere sufficiently explored and a final end put to the searching after a Southern Continent, which has at times engrossed the attention of some of the Maritime Powers for near two Centuries past and the Geographers of all ages …
It was time to steer for the Cape of Good Hope, Cook adding:
My people were yet healthy and would cheerfully have gone where ever I had thought proper to lead them, but I dreaded the Scurvy laying hold of them at a time when we had nothing left to remove it. Besides, it would have been cruel in me to have continued the Fatigues and hardships they were continually exposed to longer than absolutely necessary, their behaviour throughout the whole voyage merited every indulgence which was in my power to give them.
On 18 March, Resolution crossed paths with a number of ships, one of which came close enough for both she and Resolution to heave to in order that communications might be exchanged. As soon as circumstances permitted, Cook had a boat hoisted out so that it could go to the ship.
At 1pm the boat returned from on board the Bownkerke Polder, Captain Cornelis Bosch, a Dutch Indiaman from Bengal; Captain Bosch very obligingly offered us sugar, Arrack and whatever he had to spare. Our people were told by some English Seamen on board this ship that the Adventure arrived at the Cape of Good Hope Twelve Months ago and that one of her boats crew had been Murdered and eat by the People of New Zealand, so that the story which we heard in Queen Charlottes Sound was now no longer to be doubted, it was to this effect: that a ship or boat had been dashed to pieces on the Coast, but that the crew got safe onshore; on the Natives who were present stealing some of the strangers clothes, they were fired upon till all their ammunition was spent, or as the Natives expressed, till they could fire no longer, after which the Natives fell upon them, knocked them all on the head and treated them as above mentioned …
The ‘story’ Cook was referring to was the one that had come to him from Maoris the previous October. At the time, he wrote in his journal: ‘a report has arisen … that a ship has lately been lost, somewhere in the Strait, and all the crew Killed by them [Maoris].’
When Resolution arrived in Cape Town on 21 March, Cook received a letter written by Furneaux that acquainted him with the loss of ten ‘of his best men’. Furneaux also confirmed that he had again sailed in search of Cape Circumcision without success.
Resolution went through extensive maintenance during the five weeks she spent in Cape Town. While there, Cook received a copy of the published narrative of his first voyage, which the Admiralty had commissioned British author John Hawkesworth, LLD, to write based on Cook’s notes. In no time, the captain was fuming: he was horrified by the high level of creative licence taken by Hawkesworth. At times Cook could not even place himself in the context of the copy that was supposedly referring to his endeavours.
Resolution set sail from Cape Town on 27 April, and following a stop in St Helena, she crossed the Equator and re-entered the northern hemisphere on 11 June, driven across the ‘line’ by a fresh east-south-easterly gale. However, even with the thought of home beckoning so enticingly, Cook decided that he should complete just one more undertaking in the interests of navigation. After sailing Resolution almost the entire width of the Atlantic, to just off the coast of Brazil, he was able to establish more positively the longitude of the island of Fernando de Noronha. The last stop was Fayal, an island in the Azores, from which they departed on 19 July.
Ten days later, Förster wrote of a most welcoming scene. Resolution had passed Eddystone Lighthouse, where all on board observed ‘the first part of Englands happy Shores. The numberless Ships & finely cultivated country we see make our hearts Glad, being a Sight from which we were weaned 3 tedious long years.’
On the morning of 30 July 1775, Resolution was anchored in the Solent. The final note the captain would later write in his journal – a chronicle that told the remarkable story of a new world – was simple. It read in part: ‘anchored at Spit-head. Having been absent from England Three Years and Eighteen Days, in which time I lost but four men and only one of them by sickness.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Land Fever
The 46-year-old Cook had packed his trunk and was ready to be ro
wed to shore in Portsmouth as soon as was practicable after the ship was anchored. The release of the best bower from the cathead signalled both the completion of the commander’s second circumnavigation and the moment when his name again went into the annals of maritime history, this time in even bolder terms. He had navigated his ship across an enormous expanse of ocean in search of the much-hypothesised Terra Australis Incognita, and in doing so, had become the first explorer to circle the world in both directions. This recent voyage was remarkable. Over a period of three years, Resolution had sailed mostly through uncharted and challenging waters, from the tropics to inside the Antarctic Circle, recording a total distance of 70,000 nautical miles – equivalent to three times around the globe at the Equator.
By late afternoon that same day, Cook had stepped ashore from the pinnace and clambered up the rust-coloured stone steps to street level. There, he was immediately surrounded by a claustrophobic milieu of brick buildings, waterfront bars and people bustling about. It is quite possible that no-one recognised the great mariner and explorer: navy men coming and going were a common enough sight on Portsmouth’s waterfront, after all. Not that this lack of public awareness perturbed the Yorkshireman. His priority was to organise transport to London, where he would report to their Lordships of the Admiralty at Whitehall, before moving on to Mile End and a longed-for reunion with his wife and family.