A Brief History of Circumnavigators

by Derek Wilson

  In thick fog on 8 February Cook lost contact with his consort. He maintained position for a couple of days, firing the Resolution’s signal gun at regular intervals but there was no sign of the Adventure, which had been carried away by a current and could not bear back. Cook now made for Queen Charlotte Sound in New Zealand, the rendezvous point prearranged for just such an emergency, but not without taking a course as far south as the ice floes would permit. The officers, whom Cook consulted, showed little enthusiasm for a return towards the bitterly cold latitudes but their captain never forgot that his first priority was discovery. Sadly, the discomforts of the next six weeks were not repaid with any fresh significant information. Resolution was now in the Roaring Forties, the band of often violent westerlies which stretches southwards from the fortieth parallel. Day after day the ship raced along with the wind at her back or on her quarter, over a sea scattered with monumental boulders of ice. The stiffened sails had to be handled frequently by men balanced on the slippery yards working with numb fingers. How the offwatch crew must have cursed these seemingly senseless proceedings and what a relief it must have been when Cook, at last, ordered a change of course to the north-east and ran for New Zealand. When, on 26 March, Resolution anchored in Dusky Bay she had travelled over 10,000 miles in 122 days without a sight of land.

  Cook allowed a month’s respite in this wildly beautiful spot of fjords, steep forest-clad slopes and ribbons of falling water. He made contact with the shy local people and joined his officers on hunting expeditions. The off-duty seamen enjoyed themselves fishing and catching seals on a nearby island. Everyone ate well and enjoyed the varied diet of fish and game birds. Lieutenant Clerke, eating sealmeat for the first time, pronounced it ‘very little inferior to beefsteak’. The scientists had plenty to occupy their waking hours. There were charts to be made, specimens to be collected and drawn, astronomical readings to be taken and the chronometers to be checked. The Admiralty had provided Cook with four of these instruments and he tested them stringently. Before the voyage he was a convinced supporter of astronomical reckoning but he gradually changed his opinion. Two of the chronometers failed to last the course and a third was aboard the Adventure but the fourth, a copy of one of John Harrison’s timepieces, made by Larcum Kendall of Furnival’s Inn Court, London, in his opinion ‘exceeded the expectations of its most zealous advocate’.21 All in all, despite some atrocious weather, everyone enjoyed the stay in Dusky Sound – although any haven would probably have seemed paradisal after the experiences of the last few weeks. At the end of April Resolution weighed anchor and set off along the west coast for Queen Charlotte Sound. On 18 May she was reunited with her sister ship.

  The men of the Resolution found their colleagues of the Adventure comfortably settled for the winter. The ship was securely anchored. A shore camp had been set up and even gardens planted. Good relations had been established with the locals, who came every day to barter food. It all looked very cosy and Cook’s sailors must have looked forward to a prolonged rest. Even their workaholic captain could not contemplate more Antarctic wanderings at this season of the year. If they thought thus they were in for a rude shock. Certainly there could be no question of returning to the high latitudes, but Cook was not prepared to idle away the winter. The island chains of Polynesia still presented puzzles in need of solution and he was under orders to reassert the British presence at Tahiti. On 7 June the two ships launched out due eastwards into the dirty weather of the South Pacific winter.

  For almost six weeks they were driven by south-west and north-west gales, between 40° and 47°S, towards the heart of that large area shown on the charts as an empty space and where some geographers still believed a southern continent was located. They were almost half-way to South America before Cook ordered a change of course to the north. What a welcome the warmth and light airs of the Tropics must have been and with what eagerness the men must now have begun to look forward to the delights of Tahiti. It had so far been a very hard voyage and now, to make matters worse, scurvy and dysentery had made their appearance. Yet, only on the Adventure, where, at one time, a third of the crew were ill, was the situation serious. Cook’s few scurvy cases were put on a special diet and the disease was checked. Nothing could more clearly vindicate Cook’s rigid stance on food and hygiene. It also demonstrates one of the problems of a two-ship expedition. However dedicated a second-in-command might be (and Tobias Furneaux of the Adventure was a conscientious captain who never questioned Cook’s orders) he was to a large extent independent when aboard his own ship and thus unresponsive to the finer points of direction by his superior.

  At the beginning of August they came upon the Tuamotus and threaded their way through them to westward. Cook had his officers check carefully the positions of every island and atoll against those recorded on the charts. Because of the plight of the Adventure he found himself trapped into that very dilemma which had affected so many other Pacific voyagers: his suffering men urgently needed the rest and fresh food that a friendly landfall could offer; yet he dared not hurry through this dangerous region of reefs and shallows. Just how dangerous it was became clear at dawn on 16 August. During the night the ships had drifted to within two miles of a reef and the tide was carrying them steadily closer. Cook ordered the boats out and all morning Resolution and Adventure were towed towards deeper water. They came parallel with a break in the reef which caused a strong inward current. Within minutes the two ships were almost upon the coral and so close to each other that collision seemed inevitable. Hastily they dropped anchor and swung head on to the surf with Resolution’s stern actually scraping the bottom as each wave ebbed. Cook shouted for more anchors to be taken off by the boats and dropped at some distance. Then everyone – sailors, officers and civilians – strained at the capstans, easing the ship away from the jagged reef. But all their efforts gained them only a few yards. Not until dusk, when an evening breeze sprang up from the land, were Resolution and Adventure able to break free. It had been a strenuous day and one not made easier by the islanders. For in the midst of all the frenzy of shrieked orders, running feet, muttered curses and straining muscles the decks were littered with smiling Polynesians proffering goods for barter.

  The voyagers spent a month in Tahiti, staying briefly in a variety of anchorages in order to establish friendly relations with several of the chiefs. On this second visit Cook learned more about the political rivalries and social customs of the people. He came to the conclusion that the Tahitians had a different set of moral values from Europeans and that one should not, therefore, condemn them for stealing or for indulging in casual sexual relationships. However, this did not prevent him dealing summarily with young men caught thieving on board. They were tied to the mainmast, flogged and flung into the sea. Such punishment seemed to be accepted by the islanders, not as just retribution for wrongdoing, but as the penalty for being caught. When the ships departed on 17 September, laden with meat, fruit and vegetables, Cook was satisfied that a rough and ready understanding had been established between the Tahitians and the subjects of His Britannic Majesty.

  Now that the charts of the area to the north-east of the Great Barrier Reef were well filled with islands, more or less accurately located, a navigator could plot his course with more confidence than would have been possible a few decades before. Cook decided that he had time to visit the beautiful Tonga Islands before returning to New Zealand. It was a decision he had cause to regret. When his ships reached New Zealand waters in late October they ran into ferocious gales that prevented them reaching a sheltered harbour. It was 3 November before Resolution limped into Queen Charlotte Sound with tattered sails and a splintered fore topgallant mast. There was no sign of the Adventure and she did not reappear.

  Cook waited as long as he could but with the spring well advanced and the Antarctic beckoning he would not delay more than a few days after his ship had been thoroughly overhauled. Leaving a message for the Adventure’s captain in a buried bottle beneath a marked tre
e, he put to sea on 25 November. Five days later the consort reached the rendezvous, badly battered by the storms. Cook’s instructions were read and the captain swiftly set in hand repairs and revictualling, with every intention of following Resolution as soon as possible. Before he could complete his preparations the local people turned hostile. They attacked one of the ship’s boats, killed the occupants and made a feast of them on the beach. The effect on their shipmates’ morale was devastating. Though Adventure put to sea soon afterwards and set off in the wake of the Resolution, her crew had no stomach for further wanderings in the high latitudes. Early in the new year she set course for the Cape – and home.

  Cook, meanwhile, spent the summer looking for continents. Twice he penetrated above the Antarctic Circle. In between he returned to 45° midway between New Zealand and South America. He found nothing but ice, fog and discomfort. In the midst of all this, he fell seriously ill. For weeks his strength ebbed but he drove himself on. Then he collapsed with violent intestinal pains and seemed close to death. All the skills of the ship’s surgeon were needed to see the crisis through. It was well into March 1774 before the captain was restored to anything approaching full vigour but, at least, the cold latitudes now lay behind. Resolution had once more entered the tropics and was running north-west before the trade winds.

  Cook had now crossed the southern Pacific from east to west and south to north. He had made the first accurate observations of the Antarctic pack ice. He had made several substantial corrections to the charts – better readings of longitude; a more comprehensive survey of Polynesia. It was, in all conscience, a mammoth achievement for one voyage. His subordinates may well have thought that enough was enough. They had endured great hardships and made important discoveries. They had now lost their consort and even their captain’s health had broken under the strain. Surely it was time to pick up the normal homeward route via Batavia. No. Cook still had other plans. He visited the Marquesas, returned to Tahiti, visited Tonga again, then Fiji and New Hebrides. But instead of continuing westwards, he made for New Zealand yet again by way of New Caledonia and Norfolk Island. Scores more names were added to the charts; page after page of Cook’s journal was filled with navigational information and observations about the lands and peoples visited, before Resolution returned to Queen Charlotte Sound in the spring.

  On 10 November 1774 Cook once more sailed out of the now-familiar anchorage on the last leg of his eastabout circumnavigation. He crossed the South Pacific around the 56° parallel and Resolution made good time running before the westerlies. By this passage he confirmed his conviction that no major land mass lay in this segment of the ocean.

  Most other captains would have given Cape Horn a wide berth and stood well to the south until they reached the Atlantic. Not so James Cook. There were interesting facts to be learned about this notorious and unvisited region. He coasted the bleak, jagged jumble of islands and channels at a few miles’ distance. The wind was at his back and gentle. So gentle that he was able to find a safe anchorage on the south-west coast and remain there seven days to explore the inhospitable hinterland on foot. Here the ship’s company kept Christmas (and the location went down on the chart as Christmas Sound) in some style, thanks largely to the abundance of wild geese in the locality. There, in that lonely anchorage, where grey rock fell sheer into grey sea, Cook reckoned ‘our friends in England did not, perhaps, celebrate Christmas more cheerfully than we did’.22

  Quitting the Horn, Cook continued in its latitude, his ship borne along by westerlies which now freshened to gale force. There was still one more area of sea to be explored before he would allow himself to regard his task as completed. Earlier voyagers had reported sightings of land in the far South Atlantic and Cook had to satisfy himself whether these were accurate and, if so, whether they were the edges of a polar continent. And, on 14 January 1775, in 54°15′S, the lookout sighted the white peaks of what might have been an iceberg but turned out to be something stationary and more solid. Could this craggy terrain of bare rock and glaciers be the outermost cape of Antarctica? No. Cook travelled the length of its coast and realised that it was but an isolated island. He gave it the name of South Georgia and set course south-eastward, back into the ice floes. No more land was to be seen and before steering for the Cape, at last, Cook allowed himself a rare moment of boastfulness: if he had not found the Antarctic continent, no one could:

  . . . 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 in 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 inexpressibly 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. The ports which may be on the coast are in a manner wholly filled up with frozen snow of a vast thickness, but if any should so far be open as to admit a ship in, it is even dangerous to go in, for she runs a risk of being fixed there for ever, or coming out in an ice island. The islands and floats of ice on the coast, the great falls from the ice cliffs in the port, or a heavy snow storm attended with a sharp frost, would prove equally fatal.23

  ‘The lands which may lie to the South will never be explored’? Cook failed to make allowance for the existence of men as adventurous and determined as himself.

  On 22 March Resolution entered Table Bay and, after a five week stay, sailed for England, which she reached on the penultimate day of July. The incredible journey was over. It was the greatest voyage of discovery ever made and one of the greatest circumnavigations. What it did for later sailors was to free them from the land. It established that going eastabout in the Roaring Forties was the best way of circuiting the globe. This meant longer periods at sea than earlier captains had cared to embark upon but Cook had now shown that it could be done. With no more medical knowledge than that available to all other naval officers, he had kept his crew fit and healthy in the most trying conditions that any group of sailors had ever encountered. In addition to all this, he had taken up the challenge of the Antarctic. It was inevitable that others would follow him. For, like every great pioneer, he both opened up the way and inspired others to follow it.

  * Equivalent to £1 million in modern currency.

  * Bougainville took him to Paris where for some months he was the sensation of society. Then he sent the young Polynesian on a ship bound for Île de France, together with precise instructions for finding Tahiti, in the hope that he would find a captain able and willing to return him to his people. Whether or not he regained his native land is unknown.

  8

  A COUNTRY DOOMED BY NATURE

  Once the mystery of the southern continent had been solved, attention focused once more on the northern Pacific and, in particular, on the old quest for a north-west passage. This was what Cook was seeking when he set out in Resolution and Discovery once again on 12 July 1776. He reached the coast of Alaska in about 60°N before being forced to turn back and seek a warmer location for the winter months. While the ship was anchored at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, a dispute arose with the local people. It was the old misunderstanding about stealing metal equipment. But this time it had a tragic outcome. A dispute over a pair of armourer’s tongs ended with Cook being hacked to death at the water’s edge, on St Valentine’s Day, 1779.

  Cook’s discoveries and his death at the height of his fame spurred others on to complete the work of Pacific exploration. They also kept Anglo-French rivalry alive. The two countries were once more at war between 1778 and 1783 but, as soon as the hostilities were over and ships could be released, the French Government:

  . . . with
a view of occupying usefully the leisure of peace, and of procuring for the officers of our navy great means of instruction, intended to give orders for the equipment of two frigates, which, in sailing round the world, should be employed in examining such portions of the earth as navigators had not yet visited; in completing various discoveries made in the Great Ocean by the French; and in improving, by astronomical observations and by researches into the different branches of physics and natural history, the general and particular description of the globe which we inhabit.1

  The man entrusted with this expedition was Jean François de Galaup La Perouse, a seasoned and experienced captain. He sailed from Brest on 1 August 1785 in command of La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. Since his major objective was the North Pacific, he ignored Cook’s route and reverted to the old westabout circumnavigation. By the following June he had reached roughly the same point on the American coast that Cook had reached before he, too, was forced to turn south. He explored the coastline and islands right down to Monterey in California, crossed to Macao and, in the summer of 1787, worked his way up the Asiatic coast of the Pacific. He reached the region of 62°N. Realising that contrary winds would again force him to abandon his search for the Straits of Anian, he decided to send a report back to Paris overland. From Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, the extreme outpost of the Russian empire, he despatched Jean, Baron de Lesseps, on the 8,000 mile trans-Siberian journey to France.

  De Lesseps was the only member of the expedition to complete the circumnavigation. La Perouse sailed away before the harbour iced over for the winter. In Samoa the captain of the Astrolabe was murdered with ten of his men. The ships sailed on, calling at Tonga, Norfolk Island and then at Port Jackson, the newly-established British penal settlement on the coast of New South Wales. La Perouse and his companions left there in February 1788 and were never seen again. Several expeditions were despatched to look for the missing men but it was thirty-eight years before evidence was found that La Boussole and Astrolabe had both come to grief on the vicious reefs of Vanikoro, an atoll in the New Hebrides.