by Anthony Hill
Banks’s temper. See Elliot, p 7. ‘He swore and stamped upon the Wharfe like a Mad Man, and instantly ordered his servants and all his things out of the ship.’
Endeavour. After Cook she was used to carry freight to the Falkland Islands, and was sold by the Navy about 1775. There are several versions of her fate. Most recently it is thought she was renamed Lord Sandwich, used to transport troops to New York during the American War of Independence, became a prison ship, and was scuttled with twelve other ships off Newport in 1778 to protect shore batteries from an approaching French fleet. A number of these wrecks have been found. Although Endeavour has not yet been identified from particular features of her timber construction, researchers from the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) believe she is among a small group of wrecks located in Newport Harbour. Whether she will ever be raised is a subject of continuing discussion. See the website www.rimap.com.
Gore & Young. Beaglehole, Journals, vol I, ‘The Ship’s Company’, pp 595, 600.
Isaac’s Career. Isaac George Manley, Memorandum of Services, Adm 9/1, p 53. See also references under ‘Manley, Isaac George’ for Captain’s Letters and ships’ logs.
The Saintes. 9–12 April 1782. See Hannay, pp 276–280, also entry online on Wikipedia.
Isaac’s letters. Captain’s letter 7 July 1790, Adm 1/2126. See also references under ‘Manley’.
Isaac’s marriage, Burke’s The Landed Gentry, p 1268.
Braziers. See Cross for an excellent account with photographs of Braziers’ history, including the Manley years. A stone in the cellar is dated 1688. Drawings of Isaac’s gothic additions were displayed at the Royal Academy in 1799. Isaac’s son sold the property in 1851. The author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, grew up at Braziers. Since 1950 the property has been owned by the Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research. I acknowledge with gratitude three happy days as a visitor in October 2006. It is still a working estate.
Captain John Manley. Died 1 March 1799, without issue. His father records in his will that he laid out £1250 to equip his eldest son as an officer in Lord Cornwallis’s 33rd Regiment: a vast sum of money for those days. As a lawyer, John Manley senior seems to have had a professional association with the Cornwallis family. He died 5 September 1801. His very detailed will and codicils can be seen online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Doctor of Civil Laws. Jackson’s Oxford journal, 7 July 1810.
John Shawe Manley. See Burke; also Joseph Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses. I acknowledge the assistance of Oxford University Archives.
Admiral Isaac. Isaac’s promotions are recorded in the Navy List, also in his obituary. See entry under Isaac George Manley in Chapter 1 for details of Richard Dighton’s portrait of him in later life.
Steamships. The US ship Savannah was the first sailing ship with an auxiliary steam engine to cross the Atlantic, to Liverpool, in 1819. The Dutch-owned but British-built vessel Curaçao was the first to cross using mainly steam in 1826. The Canadian Royal William in 1833 was one of the first to make a transatlantic voyage using steam only. The British Great Western began the first regular steam service in 1838. See www.curassow.com.
Obituary. The Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1837.
Memorial. Plaque above the pulpit at St Peter & St Paul’s Church Checkendon, author visit 2006. Isaac’s will can be seen online through the Captain Cook Society, www.captaincooksociety.com.
HISTORICAL NOTES
Banks and Matra. For their role in the decision to establish a colony at Botany Bay see O’Brian, Banks, pp 264–9.
Smallpox. A good account of the effects of the disease that devastated the Aboriginal community near Sydney can be found in an article by Craig Mear, ‘The origin of the smallpox outbreak in Sydney in 1789’ in the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society June 2008 edition.
Trinca. ‘Informed and rounded perspective incorporates view from ship and shore’, The Australian, September 16–17 2017, p 19.
Venereal disease at Tahiti. See Cook’s Journal for Tuesday 6 June 1769.
Cook’s naval background. See notes to Chapter 1. A short account is in O’Brian, Banks, pp 71–2. For a full account see Beaglehole, Life of Captain Cook, Chapters III and IV.
No great discoveries. Cook twice used similar words in correspondence to the Admiralty. From Batavia, whence he sent a copy of his journal, he wrote, ‘Altho’ the discoveries made in this voyage are not great, yet I flatter my self that they are such as may merit the attention of their Lordships . . .’ (Beaglehole, Life, et al. p 259). And upon arriving home, when he sent in his charts and drawings, Cook wrote to Secretary Stephens hoping they would convey ‘a Tolerable knowledge of the places they are intended to illustrate, & that the discoveries we have made, tho’ not great, will Apologize for the length of the Voyage’ (Beaglehole, p 272). As Beaglehole remarks, Cook’s unwillingness to claim more than minimal credit must have seemed incomprehensible to their Lordships.
Chronometer. Dava Sobel’s Longitude is a marvellous book about John Harrison’s clocks and the solution to the longitude problem. The three sea clocks can be seen at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and the prototype chronometer (H4) at the Science Museum, London. Kendall’s copy of Harrison’s chronometer, known as K1, went on Cook’s second and third voyages. It also arrived at Botany Bay with the First Fleet in 1788, before being returned to England. It is now on display at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Florilegium. See, for example, a discussion on the National Museum of Australia website www.nma.gov.au under ‘European Voyages to the Australian Continent’. Gooding et al. have recently published a fine single-volume edition for the general reader.
Resolution. For Banks’s ‘dummy spit’ see O’Brian, pp 187–90. He includes an exchange of letters between Banks and his friend the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, but only extracts. As O’Brian remarks, ‘. . . passion does tend to grow intolerably wordy.’
Isaac Manley. The single sentence on Isaac is in Beaglehole, pp 139–40.
Admiral Manley’s Map. For a longer article about the map and the family to whom it was given, see my website http://www.anthonyhillbooks.com/isaacs-map.html.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A great many people helped me during my own voyage of discovery for this book, and I thank them all. Each piece of information, however small, contributed to my understanding of the subject.
I would like to acknowledge the assistance given by The Australia Council for the Arts, which enabled me to visit sites of importance in the Endeavour story and complete the writing. Mr Graeme Powell, formerly manuscript librarian at the National Library of Australia, generously allowed me to sit with Cook’s journal.
Pete and Takutai Beech, Ruth Boreham, Margie Callaghan, Chris Donnithorne, Captain Ross Mattson and the company of HMB Endeavour, Alexandra Fullerlove, Alwyn Peel, Margaret and Ron Simpson, and Cliff Thornton were of special assistance during the research. Les Bursill, Dr Alan Cowan, Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, Michelle Hetherington, Professor Adrian Horridge, Dr David Jauncey, Michaela Jerome, Peter Johnston, Dr Nick Lomb, and Anthony Longhurst were among those who read the manuscript in whole or in part and suggested many improvements, although any errors are my own. I thank everyone.
Canberra: Sue Clarke; Dr Alan Cowan; Director and staff, National Library of Australia, particularly Andrew Sergeant of the Petherick Reading Room; Rear Admiral Ken Doolan who helped on all matters nautical; Embassy of Portugal; Peter Filmer; Alan Gould; Michelle Hetherington; Professor Adrian Horridge who gave much advice on the South Seas voyages; Dr David Jauncey who assisted with the Transit; Michaela Jerome; David Kaus, and the Director, Dr Mathew Trinca, and staff, National Museum of Australia; Robert King; Sea Power Centre; Huub Schwartz.
Sydney: Les and Robyn Bursill; Dr Nigel Erskine and staff, Australian National Maritime Museum; Associate Professor John Faulkner; Cameron’s Management; Dr Nick Lomb; Captain Ross Mattson, Anthony Longhurst, staff and crew of H
MB Endeavour who taught this landlubber his ropes, and Captain Jim Cottee who showed me the sextant; State Library of NSW and staff who gave access to the Cook material; members of the Captain Cook Society; Margaret and Ron Simpson, who with Les Bursill gave me a splendid day on Port Hacking looking at Aboriginal Australia.
Cooktown: Dr Judy Bennett; Margie Callaghan; Helen Crampton and staff, James Cook Museum; Eric Deeral, an elder of the Guugu Yimithirr people; Willie Gordon, Helena Loncaric, Roy McIvor and members of the Hopevale community who gave me an Aboriginal perspective on Cook, the sharing code and the incident with the turtles; Trevor Nicholson (Nicho) and Sam Dibella who suggested how a turtle might be caught with a boathook.
New Zealand: Pete and Takutai Beech with whom I had a wonderful day on Queen Charlotte Sound; Peter Johnston of the Ngati Hei people, who gave much valuable advice; Betty Rowe; Don Thomson; Mercury Bay District Historical Society museum; John Robson; my editor, Suzanne Wilson.
Tahiti: Walter Demmayer; Tehani Fiedler-Valenta, formerly of Tahiti Tourisme Australie; Alberts Tours.
Britain: Anne Batchelor, who kindly made her Manley research materials available; The British Library; Ruth Boreham, an invaluable research assistant; Maurice Roth, Cliff Jordan and residents of the Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research; Cliff Thornton, Alwyn Peel, Ian Boreham and members of the Captain Cook Society; Joyce Cook; Chris Donnithorne who shared his knowledge of the Royal Navy; staff at the National Archives; Alexandra Fullerlove, Bernard Bryant and staff of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, who made me welcome; Michael Manley, a direct descendent of Isaac; archives of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple; Margaret Morris; R and D Nuttal of Dodleston; Oxford University Archives; Oxfordshire Record Office; Noel Stevens of Cheltenham; my dear family Brenda and Bob Blewitt, and Gail and Edward Mann.
I would also like to thank Noel Hall of Brisbane; Jane and Paul Mangion, and Tony Radford of Melbourne; and Cathy Manly Sockol, who runs an online Manley family history site, for their assistance and advice.
Finally I acknowledge my friend, Jane Tanner, who has given her literary encouragement throughout this adventure; and of course my loved wife, Gillian, who has been with me for the whole of the journey.
REFERENCES
Aughton, Peter. Endeavour, the Story of Captain Cook’s First Great Epic Voyage (Cassell & Co., London, 2002). A beautifully illustrated account of the voyage.
Banks, Joseph. Ed. Paul Brunton. The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks: The Australian Journey (Angus & Robertson with State Library of NSW, Sydney, 1998). Also Banks’s Journal at southseas.nla.gov.au.
Beaglehole, J.C. The Life of Captain James Cook (Stanford University Press, 1998). The definitive biography.
Beaglehole, J.C. (ed.). The Journals of Captain James Cook on his voyages of discovery (Vols I & II, The Hakluyt Society, London, 1955–61).
Brown, Stephen. Scurvy: How a surgeon, a mariner, and a gentleman solved the greatest medical mystery of the age of sail (Penguin, Melbourne, 2003).
Burke, Bernard. Burke’s The Landed Gentry [1914]. See entry for Manley of Manley Hall & Shenstone Park; also Isaac’s wife Frances, Chandos-Pole of Radburne.
British Library: Endeavour Log, May–August 1768 MS8959s; Isaac’s grandfather a Commissioner of Customs 1720 MS61605 ff 187, and living at Hatton Garden Add 1394 ff 28–30; folios of drawings by and engravings after Alexander Buchan, Sydney Parkinson, et al., from Endeavour voyage Add 15508 & Add 23920.
Cook, James. The Journals (Penguin, London, 2003, selections ed. Philip Edwards from Beaglehole’s editions). Also Cook’s Journals at southseas.nla.gov.au.
Cross, Clarence. Braziers Before the Community (Braziers Research Communications, 1982). See ‘The Manley Era’.
Elliott, John, and Richard Pickersgill, ed. Christine Holmes. Captain Cook’s Second Voyage (Caliban, London). Journals of two Lieutenants.
Endeavour Journals. Manuscript journals of the following Endeavour crew held at the National Archives, London: Anonymous Adm 51/4547; John Bootie Adm 51/4546; Charles Clerke Adm 51/4548; John Gore Adm 51/4548; Zachary Hicks Adm 51/4546; Robert Molineux Adm 51/4546 and Master’s Log Adm 55/39; Richard Pickersgill Adm 51/4547; Francis Wilkinson Adm 51/4547. Extracts from some are printed in Beaglehole, Journals, Vol I.
Falconer, William. A universal dictionary of the marine (Cadell, London, 1769). See plates at www.nla.gov.au.
French, Jackie. The Goat Who Sailed the World (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 2006).
Gooding, Mel; David Mabberley & Joe Studholme. Joseph Banks’ Florilegium, Botanical Treasures from Cook’s First Voyage (Thames & Hudson, London, 2017). A handsome abridged volume of highlights from the complete Florilegium, at an affordable price.
Hawkesworth, John. An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere (Byron, Wallis & Cook [Endeavour] voyages, London, 1773). Also at southseas.nla.gov.au.
Hetherington, Michelle. ‘Cook’s voyages to the Pacific’ in exhibition catalogue Cook’s Pacific Encounters (National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2006).
Jackson, Peter. London Bridge (Cassell & Co., London, 1971).
Lomb, Nick. Transit of Venus: The scientific event that led Captain Cook to Australia (Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 2004).
Macarthur, Antonia. His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour: The story of the ship and her people (Angus & Robertson with the ANMM, Sydney, 1997).
Manley, Isaac George. Captain’s Letters 1784–95 (Adm 1/2124 to 1/2129), National Archives, London. Also the logs during his command of HMS Britannia [Dec 1782–Mar 1783] Adm 51/139; Otter [Mar–Apr 1783] Adm 51/664; Hound [Apr–Aug 1783] Adm 51/463; Fairy [May 1786–June 1789] Adm 51/333).
O’Brian, Patrick. Joseph Banks: A life (1987 [2016], Folio Society, introduction by Peter Campbell).
Parkin, Ray. H.M. Bark Endeavour (Melbourne University Publishing, 2003). A masterly book.
Parkinson, Sydney. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas in HMS Endeavour (Caliban, London, 1984 – a facsimile of the 1784 edition). Also at southseas.nla.gov.au.
Robson, John (ed.). The Captain Cook Encyclopaedia (Random House, Sydney, 2004).
Rodger, N.A.M. The Wooden World: An anatomy of the Georgian navy (Fontana, Glasgow, 1988).
Salmond, Anne. The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas (Penguin, London, 2004). See the Polynesian sections of the voyage.
——. Two Worlds: First meetings between Maori and Europeans 1642–1772 (Viking, Auckland, 1991). See Chapter 5, ‘Goblins from the sea’, esp. Whitianga section.
Sobel, Dava. Longitude: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time (Fourth Estate, London, 2005). The remarkable tale of John Harrison (1693–1776), who invented the chronometer.
Thomas, Nicholas. Discoveries: The voyages of Captain Cook (Penguin, London, 2004). A contemporary anthropologist’s account of Cook in the Pacific.
Trickett, Peter. Beyond Capricorn: How Portuguese adventurers secretly discovered and mapped Australia and New Zealand 250 years before Captain Cook (East Street Publications, Adelaide, 2007). A fascinating story. The theory is contested by many traditional cartographers.
Van der Brug, P.H., ‘Malaria in Batavia in the 18th century’ in Tropical Medicine & International Health, Vol 2, Sept 1997, p 892). Also available on the internet.
INTERNET
Australian National Maritime Museum. www.anmm.gov.au. Home of the Endeavour replica. A great resource for the maritime exploration of Australia.
Braziers. www.braziers.org.uk. Home page of the Braziers Park community in Oxfordshire, with information about the house where Admiral Isaac Manley lived.
British Library. www.bl.uk. One of the world’s greatest libraries. Check out the online image collections, including drawings by Sydney Parkinson, Alexander Buchan and others.
British Museum. www.britishmuseum.org. Another of the world’s amazing institutions with wonderful coll
ections of South Seas material brought back to England by Cook, Banks and others.
Captain Cook Society. www.captaincooksociety.com. A worldwide society of people interested in the life and work of Captain Cook. Isaac’s will is online.
Dharawal people. www.lesbursill.com. The website of Les Bursill, an Aboriginal man of the Dharawal nation. An excellent resource for words, images and traditional lore of the area around Botany Bay.
Journals of Cook, Banks and Parkinson. southseas.nla.gov.au. An excellent National Library of Australia site, including voyaging accounts, maps, a South Seas Companion, cultural atlases, indigenous histories and European reactions.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. www.nmm.ac.uk. A magnificent site for all things associated with Cook, Endeavour, and British maritime history. Also check out the Royal Observatory for Harrison’s sea clocks and chronometer.
Royal Navy. www.royalnavy.mod.uk. A fascinating site full of information and pictures of the Royal Navy.
Royal Navy biographies. www.navylist.org. A UK database maintained by Chris Donnithorne of people and ships associated with the Royal Navy since 1660.
State Library of NSW. www.sl.nsw.gov.au. The Library has a splendid collection of objects associated with Cook, Banks and Endeavour, including the Captain’s Bible, navigation instruments, personal items, Banks’s journal and other manuscripts. Many of them can be seen online.
Anthony Hill is a multi-award-winning, bestselling author. His most recent book for adults, Animal Heroes, was published in 2017.
His novel Soldier Boy, about Australia’s youngest-known Anzac, won the 2002 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Books for Young Adults. Alongside Young Digger and For Love of Country, it’s testimony to his remarkable ability to extensively research historical material and, from wide-ranging sources, piece together a moving and exciting story.