Captain Cook's Apprentice

by Anthony Hill

  It wasn’t until after his death, indeed, that Cook became immortalised as the great and humane navigator he was, and he took his own place in the firmament of celebrity. Where his star continues to shine brightly (if not uncritically) during these 250th commemorations, that of Joseph Banks has dimmed somewhat by comparison in the public mind. Perhaps, in this transit of personalities and endeavour, it has something to do with the radiance of Cook’s own ‘halo’.

  Anthony Hill

  Canberra, 2018

  CHAPTER NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  Sincere thanks to Professor Adrian Horridge, and to Michelle Hetherington, Senior Curator, Australian Society and History at the National Museum of Australia, for reading the introduction and historical notes in draft, and for their valuable comments and suggestions.

  Endeavour. I sailed on the Endeavour replica from Melbourne to Sydney in April 2006. A more complete account of the research journey is on my website www.anthonyhillbooks.com/ideaofisaac.html. There are many photos of the replica ship on the National Maritime Museum of Australia website www.anmm.gov.au/whats-on/vessels/hmb-endeavour.

  CHAPTER 1

  Black hand. The Manley family dates to the Norman Conquest, and the crest to medieval times. John Manley’s shield can still be seen in Middle Temple Hall.

  London Bridge. The first stone bridge over the Thames was opened in 1209 and stood for over six hundred years. The second London Bridge opened in 1831, and the most recent in 1973. Baldwin’s Guide of 1768 gives the watermen’s rate from London to Deptford as two shillings and sixpence (half a crown). Shooting the Bridge. The dangers were very real, see Jackson, pp 70–1.

  Manley family. Isaac was descended through the younger branch of a landed family from Erbistock, in Wales. His great-great grandfather, John, fought for Cromwell and was an MP. His great-grandfather, Isaac, was Postmaster-General in Ireland, and grandfather, John (d. 1743), was a Commissioner for Customs and lived at Hatton Garden. His father, also John (c. 1716–1801), was called to the Bar in 1739 and became a Bencher (senior member) of the Middle Temple in 1768. In 1750 he married Ann Hammond and they had five children.

  Isaac George Manley. Baptised St Giles-in-the-Fields, London, 3 March 1755. His elder brother, John (d. 1799), and younger brother Robert Kenrick (d. 1843), both entered the 33rd [Lord Cornwallis’s] Regiment. Isaac had an elder sister, Maria, and a younger, Louisa, both apparently unmarried. It’s not known where the children went to school: possibly the family had a tutor. A coloured print of Admiral Manley in later life by Richard Dighton can be seen at the Greenwich National Maritime Museum website.

  Servant. It is unclear how Isaac got a place on Endeavour, but his father had connections with the Royal Navy. In 1790 Isaac wrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Philip Stephens, My father desires his compts [compliments] Adm 1/2126. It was the age of patronage, and Stephens had begun his career at the Navy Office, near the Customs House where Isaac’s grandfather was a Commissioner.

  London. I have used the facsimile of John Roque’s Plan of 1746.

  Tahiti. The modern spelling. Cook and others used the archaic Otaheite.

  Endeavour. Built in 1764 as a collier at Whitby, Yorkshire. A cat-built (deep-waisted) bark of three masts, square rigged, she weighed 368 tons, had an extreme length of 97ft 7in (29.7m), and was 29ft 3in (8.9m) at her widest (measurements Parkin, p 4). She drew about 14ft of water (less than 2.5 fathoms) laden. Originally the Earl of Pembroke, she was renamed HM Bark Endeavour when bought by the Navy in 1768.

  James Cook. One of the world’s greatest navigators. Born in 1728 at Marton, Yorkshire, son of a Scottish farm labourer. At seventeen he was apprenticed to a Staithes grocer, but subsequently transferred to a Whitby coal-shipper, the Quaker John Walker, where Cook learned his seamanship. In 1755 he joined the Royal Navy, and received high praise for his survey of the St Lawrence River in Canada during the Seven Years’ War. His later survey of Newfoundland and observation of an eclipse brought him to the attention of the Royal Society, the Admiralty, and his appointment as Lieutenant to command Endeavour. Cook’s description. Dr David Samwell, surgeon on Discovery. The John Webber portrait of Cook at the Australian National Portrait Gallery can be seen online, and the Nathanial Dance portrait, considered a good likeness, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

  Nick Young. Described by Molineux’s Journal, October 1769, as about twelve years old. Gore calls him ‘a little boy’. He does not appear on the muster roll until 18 April 1769 after Alexander Buchan died at Tahiti, but was clearly on board.

  HMS Dolphin. The Dolphin made two voyages around the world. The first was with Captain Byron (1764–66). The second, under Captain Wallis (1766–68), discovered Tahiti; and his glowing accounts encouraged the Royal Society to select the island for the Pacific observation of the Transit of Venus.

  Master. One of the most important roles on an eighteenth-century ship. The modern equivalent would be that of navigator, although a Master’s responsibility for the internal management of the ship was much broader. Isaac would have learned his trade from topmast to keel. Otago University has a fine portrait of Molineux. Otago Harbour and the Clutha River, New Zealand, were originally named after Molineux by Cook.

  Larboard. Easily confused with ‘starboard’, and subsequently charged to ‘port.’

  CHAPTER 2

  Endeavour. My descriptions of life aboard the ship are based on an eight-day sail I made as a supernumerary on the Endeavour replica from Melbourne to Sydney in April 2006, and visits to the ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney. I thank Captain Ross Mattson, his officers and crew for their kindness in helping to teach this landlubber his ropes. See the Australian National Maritime Museum for photos of the ship.

  Hammock. I had one night sleeping in a hammock in the 4ft 6in section of the deck. It was enough.

  Joseph Banks. The son of a wealthy Norfolk landowner. Born in 1743, he was educated at Harrow and Eton, where he developed his love of botany. He furthered his studies at Oxford and, after inheriting his father’s fortune in 1764, pursued his natural history interests with a visit to Newfoundland and Labrador, and tours of Europe. Elected to the Royal Society in 1766, it asked that Banks be allowed to join the Endeavour expedition to the South Seas. His reputation established by the extraordinary collections he brought back from the voyage, Banks became one of the most important figures and patrons in the British scientific establishment, a friend of King George III for many years, and was created a baronet and a Knight Companion of the Bath. Banks was elected President of the Royal Society in 1778, a position he held until his death in 1820. Banks gave his support to the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay, though he long believed that the merino sheep, which he was breeding for the king, wouldn’t thrive in the new colony. The latter opinion was to prove as wrong as the former was correct.

  Storm. Cook, Journal, 1 September 1768.

  Weather sayings. From a collection at the Maritime Museum, Falmouth, UK.

  Net. Banks, Journal, 5 September.

  Weir. Cook, 14 September. Flogging. 16 September. A photo of the cat-o-nine-tails can be seen online at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Pickersgill was himself made to ‘Stand before the mast’ in disgrace the following month, for refusing to help scrub the deck.

  Scurvy. See Brown, Rodger, pp 100–103; Beaglehole, Life, pp 135–6. The physician James Lind wrote in 1756 on the value of citrus in preventing scurvy, but little notice was taken at first.

  Lord Anson. George Anson (1697–1762), First Lord of the Admiralty. Circumnavigated the world 1740–43, his fleet of six ships reduced to one. Less than 200 men returned. Of the 961 men who died, 90 per cent perished of scurvy. Brown says, ‘This terrible loss heralds the golden age of scurvy research in England.’

  Funchal. Parkinson (p 2) says the hills above Funchal were cultivated with vines and orange trees, and it ‘appears like one wide, extended, beautiful garden’. As distinct from the uncultivate
d floggings taking place on board Endeavour.

  St Nicholas. Author visit October 2006. The skull and crossbones can still be seen on the gateposts, also the charnel house.

  Thurman. Beaglehole, Journal, vol I, p 600, ‘The Ship’s Company’. Press gang abroad. See Rodger, pp 180–2. I assume Thurman was taken ashore; press gangs also boarded merchant ships.

  CHAPTER 3

  Tenerife. Banks, 23 September.

  Spanish Ladies. The shanty dates to the 1690s. It recurs throughout this book. I have used a version found with three different tunes at www.ingeb.org/songs.

  Shark. Banks, 29 September.

  Bully boys, Bullies. ‘Fine boys, hearties.’ Originally a term of affection or comradeship, and used in this sense. No doubt actions such as the press gangs led to its current tyrannical meaning.

  Sauerkraut. Keeps well and retains much of its vitamin C, a vital ingredient in overcoming scurvy during long sea voyages. Though Cook did not know the science, he received the Copley Medal in 1776 for demonstrating its efficacy. See Cook, Journal, 13 April 1769, for his psychology in getting the crew to eat it. Cook’s other remedies against scurvy included malt wort, portable soup, and concentrated lemon juice (rob of lemon), but boiling or vinegar removed most of the vitamin C and they were largely ineffective. Apart from sauerkraut, the real antiscorbutics were fresh food, greenstuffs, and above all citrus fruit. Once this was understood, every British ship carried lemons and limes – hence the term ‘Limeys’.

  Crossing the Line. Banks, 25 October, describes the ceremony.

  Rio. Cook, 13–30 November.

  Sneaking ashore. Banks, 22–26 November. Jails. 20 November.

  Portuguese. My thanks to the Embassy of Portugal, Canberra, for the translations.

  Flogger flogged. Cook, 30 November.

  CHAPTER 4

  Flower. Cook, 2 December 1768.

  Watches. A continuous watch must be kept on a ship to ensure safety and readiness for duty. This requires a proportion of the crew to be ‘on watch’ at any one time. Usually, all watches are four hours, except the first and last ‘dog watches’, which are each two hours long. ‘Dog’ may be a shortened term for those said to be ‘dodging’ a full four-hour watch.

  A ship’s twenty-four-hour day formerly ran from noon to noon. Before chronometers, this was a known time with the sun at its zenith. In a three-watch system (red, white and blue), crew serve every third watch. If the dog watches were not split, each watch would be on duty at the same time every day. This typical three-day roster shows how the time of watches rotates for each watch:

  With a two-watch system (Port watch and Starboard watch) the crew is divided into two rather than three groups. They are ‘on watch’ for four hours and have only four hours off. There are no dog watches. The system means more crew are available for each watch, but they have less rest.

  The watch is not only necessary for the safe passage of the ship: it provides structure, meaning and occupation for the daily lives of sailors, helping to prevent minds from becoming idle, bored or mischievous.

  Giants & pigmies. See Hawkesworth, ‘Introduction’; also Byron and Wallis sections.

  Indians. The Endeavour journals usually refer to any native peoples as Indians. I have kept the practice here in direct speech.

  Fearnought jackets. Cook, 6 January 1769.

  Guanaco. Animal similar to a llama.

  Deaths. Based on Banks, 16–17 January. Buchan’s painting of Endeavour’s watering place at Terra del Fuego can be seen online at the British Library. Also search the National Library of Australia’s Trove online pictures archive for Buchan’s view of a native hut.

  Slaves. It is estimated nine-and-a-half million African slaves were transported to the Americas during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. England stopped its slave trade in 1807 and abolished it altogether in its colonies in 1834.

  Albatross. Banks, 5 February.

  Nails. See Wallis, July 1767, in Hawkesworth. Goat. Ibid, p 313.

  Greenslade. Cook and Banks, 26 March.

  CHAPTER 5

  Search the National Library of Australia’s Trove pictures archive for illustrations of Cook and Endeavour at Tahiti. Search also Matavai Bay, Fort Venus, Transit, Parkinson, etc.

  Plantain. Tropical fruit, similar to a banana.

  Rules. Cook, 13 April. Thieves. 14 April. Shooting. 16 April.

  Buchan. Banks, 16–19 April. Nick Young. Mustered, 18 April; Beaglehole, Journal I, p 600.

  Flags. Cook, 12 June.

  Dog. Cook, 20 June; Parkinson p 20.

  Heiva. Banks, ‘Manners and Customs of South Seas Islands’, Journal, 14 August.

  Flytrap. Banks, 22 April.

  Doll. Cook, Banks, 28 April. Quadrant. 2 May.

  Mutinous talk. Molineux, 5 May, and also trip around island, 8 May.

  Surfing. Banks, 29 May, the first European description of the sport. I assume Isaac also saw it.

  Rats. Molineux, 26 May; Parkinson, p 21.

  Transit. Cook, 3 June. The Transit occurs in pairs, eight years apart, separated by approx. one hundred and twenty years. It occurred in 1761 and 1769, 1874 and 1882, 2004 and 2012. It was hoped to calculate the Earth’s distance from the sun using the principles of parallax – i.e. to measure the slight apparent shifts in the track of Venus across the sun as seen from different parts of Earth. Hence the importance of the Tahiti sighting. See Lomb.

  Observation. I can find no primary source description on how the observation was done. I have assumed that direct observation through the reflecting telescope (with dark filter glass) and projection onto a card or screen were both used. I thank Dr David Jauncey, Dr Nick Lomb, and Margaret Morris for their advice. Part of Cook’s report on the observation can be seen online in the NLA’s Trove pictures archive: search ‘Cook Transit’.

  Note: It cannot be stressed too strongly how dangerous it is to observe the sun with the naked eye. Even using a dark glass is no longer acceptable. Always make an observation under proper supervision and with correct equipment.

  Tupaia. Banks, 5 June.

  CHAPTER 6

  Continent. See Alexander Dalrymple note next chapter.

  Teredo. A shipworm which bores into timber hulls, piers, etc.

  Mourner. Banks, 10 June.

  Tattoo. Cook, ‘Description of King George’s Island’, Journal, 13 August; Banks, 5 July and ‘Manners and Customs’; Parkinson, p 25.

  Wolf. Cook, 4 June. Banks & Monkhouse. Parkinson, 19 June, p 32.

  VD. Cook, 6 June. It seems that gonorrhoea was the particular venereal disease brought to Tahiti. The widespread tropical disease of yaws can give some immunity to syphilis. I have used ‘pox’ as period slang to include any form of VD: ‘distemper’ is Cook’s word. As he foretold, it spread through the Pacific with other diseases introduced by Europeans – measles, smallpox, even the common cold – that devastated indigenous communities. Beaglehole, p 188; Salmond (2004), p 69.

  Arioi. Banks, ‘Manners and Customs’.

  Thurman. Cook, 12 June. How Thurman must have regretted going to Madeira!

  Marae. Banks, 13 & 18 June.

  Boy chief. Cook, 21 June.

  Rake. Cook, Banks, 14 June. Island tour. 26 June–1 July.

  Marines. Cook, 10–11 July. Despite his punishment Gibson had great respect for the Captain, as Cook did for him. Gibson sailed as Corporal on Cook’s second voyage in the Resolution, and as Sergeant on the third voyage. He was with the Captain when Cook was killed by natives at Hawaii in 1779.

  Tupaia. Banks, 12 July, writes, ‘I do not know why I may not keep him as a curiosity, as well as some of my neighbours do lions and tygers . . .’

  Heimata. A popular Tahitian name, it means ‘crowned with eyes’; a clairvoyant. I thank Tehani Fiedler-Valenta of Tahiti Tourisme Australie for her assistance.

  Quarrel. Bootie, Journal, July 1769. The torn-out page has been re-inserted in the wrong place. Evil communications is from the Bible, 1 Corinthians. It is uncer
tain if Nick wrote the words himself, as the hand seems very mature for a twelve-year-old.

  Orders. Beaglehole, Life, pp 147–9.

  INTERLUDE

  Tupaia’s map. Cook’s drawing based on Tupaia’s map is at the British Library. See Aughton, pp 132–3. Drawings by Tupaia can be seen online at the British Library site. The Wikipedia entry for Tupaia has the map he drew for Cook showing the islands around Tahiti.

  Alexander Dalrymple. Scottish geographer (1737–1808), a believer in the southern continent. In 1767 he published An Account of Discoveries in the South Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764 including a map, a copy of which he gave to Banks. The Royal Society proposed Dalrymple command the Endeavour expedition, but as he was not a Royal Navy officer the Admiralty gave the post to Cook, and the two thus became rivals. See Robson, and also Torres note in Chapter 11.

  Mat sails. Could be tilted fore and aft, much like a modern windsurfer.

  Ceremony. Cook, 17 July. Possession. 21 July.

  Taiata. Parkinson did a fine drawing of the boy, see Aughton, p 113, also online.

  Smoking. The muster book shows Isaac was first charged nineteen shillings for two months’ tobacco in September 1769. By February 1771 it had increased to twenty-eight shillings and sixpence.

  Reading. Cook, 28 August. Comet. 29 August.

  Sextant. I thank Captain Jim Cottee, navigator during my sail on the Endeavour replica, for his patience in showing me how to use a sextant.

  Supplies. Banks, 23 September, also weevils. He notes they have seventeen sheep, four or five fowls, as many Muscovy ducks and Tahitian hogs, an English boar and sow with litter. The goat is not mentioned. The sauerkraut is as good as ever.

  Reward. Parkinson, p 85. He says Cook offered two gallons of rum if land were discovered at night! Land of Promise. Banks, 1 October.

  CHAPTER 7

  Poverty Bay. Account based on Salmond (2004), Cook, Banks and esp. Monkhouse, 9–12 October. Cook does not name the four boys with the yawl. I assume Isaac was there.

  Maori names. See Salmond (2004), pp 116, 119. Tattoo. Monkhouse.